Chris Horner (RadioShack) won his first European stage race ever today, beating Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) by 8 seconds in the Time Trial, Stage 6. Going into today's stage, Horner was down by 1 second on GC to Valverde, but when I spoke with him after Stage 5 and asked him how he planned to get time on the leader, he told me "I'll just have to beat Valverde in the Time Trial." He had a phenomenal ride.
After his win, I interviewed him for Universal Sports, available here following the commercial (if you're on a Mac, use Firefox as your browser, not Safari):
The same 7-minute-long interview is also available at the video link below, done with Horner when he's in the car with his Director Sportif, two-time Olympic gold medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov (aka Eki), after the race. It's worth a listen - he talks about his strategy, race preparation for the TT earlier that morning, what Eki was telling him from the car, and what he was thinking when he crossed the line. Horner came to the Basque country first in 1997-98, and has wanted a win for twelve long years. Congrats, Redneck! You made us all proud today as the first American ever to win this race. Enjoy your chapelas!
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