Feature

Sat 27 Jun, 4:19 am UTC

Chris Horner reveals logic behind Tour snub

By Cyclingnews.com

American Chris Horner seemed to be a sure bet for Astana's Tour de France roster. After all, he put in a brilliant performance as a mountain domestique in the Giro d'Italia before exiting early after a crash with a broken tibia.

Yet when the team announced its final roster earlier this week, the Oregon resident was not on the list. Upset at the prospect of missing one of his last opportunities to race in the sport's big show, the 37-year-old's first reaction was to try to leave the team and find another squad which would bring him to the Tour.

Writing on his blog on OregonLive.com, Horner revealed the inner workings of team manager Johan Bruyneel's choice of nine riders for the Tour.

"Knowing there was no reason to get upset with Johan, I hung up the phone after thanking him for what I knew was a hard call to make, and for the fighting I knew he had done on my behalf with sponsors and riders on the team to get me on," Horner wrote.

Chalking up his exclusion to politics, he explained that one spot had to go to a Kazakh rider to please the team's sponsor, who scrambled to keep the team afloat after its financial crisis.

The top four riders on the team were given expected spots: Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden.

Horner explained that Haimar Zubeldia and Yaroslav Popovych were selected early as support riders, leaving two spots on the team. The first went to Gregory Rast, who is "a big guy who could help tackle the flats", and Horner thought he would surely get the final place on the team.

Instead, the place was given to Sergio Paulinho, who was Contador's choice as a support rider.

Horner did not place blame on Bruyneel, instead he thanked him, saying to his fans, "don't be too hard on him -- he has a difficult job and was stuck in an impossible position."

Cyclingnews was unable to reach Bruyneel for comments on his Tour selection.

User Comments

There are 8 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 8 of 8 comments

  • Would seem to suggest that Contador is in fact the leader if he had the final choice of a support rider.

  • well i dont see anyone else in the astana tam capable of winning the tour, do you?

  • Horner was riding at his peak in the Giro and blowing Lance aside. What we have witnessed here is pure politics. Lance has name, money and backers, Chris has only his fans. And Contador? Cruising on his prima donna nationalistic attitude, he picks up a Spanish domestique who can't hold a candle to Horner. Sad!

  • Unlucky Horner,

    hope he can grab a team quickly before the tour.

    Silencer lotto could use a good domestique!

  • In Nevada City, Horner got lapped by Levi and Lance. Obviously he's not strong enough to ride the Tour this year. If he hadn't got banged up in the Giro, no doubt he'd be lining up with the team on July 4th.

  • Ventoux is going to decide the race this year. I think anyone who writes Armstrong off even if you hate him is a fool. He is the master of mind games and knows how to win the tour,he was not ai peak condition at the Giro and lacked a lot of training but was always there or there abouts. I do think Contador will be stronger as long as he keeps his head and has learnt from his Paris-Niece mistakes. So who will challenge Sastre? the field is a lot stronger than last year,Evans? give me a break.

  • Lance already said he's not the leader of Astana, that contador is. It's pretty logical for the team leader to pick his support guy.

  • Paulinho is Portuguese, not Spanish. That said I would have probably picked Horner over Popyvych, who, last year at least, was a complete waste of money and did nothing for Evans, though he has worked well at Discovery in the past...

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