Horner Interview after Stage 4, Tour of the Basque Country

I interviewed Horner for our Universal Sports TV broadcast after Stage 4, and here are his thoughts as he looks ahead to the final two days.

This video is all about the audio - please ignore the image quality. Photo is of the final podium after Stage 6.

Horner and Valverde on the Hunt at Vuelta a Pais Vasco, 2010, and Horner Interview Stage 1

Thursday, April 8, 2010--The 50^th edition of the Vuelta de Pais Vasco is currently underway in Spain, and today’s mountainous Stage 4 confirmed that Chris Horner of Radioshack is feeling good. On the final Category 1 climb, after Robert Gesink (Rabobank) wound up the pace and whittled down the numbers in the leading group, Horner countered with a blistering move of his own. Down only 1" second on GC behind Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), he threw himself into the virtual race lead as he road away from the main contenders, with about a mile to go the top of the climb, and only another mile from there to the finish line.

Hormer’s solo attempt didn’t last, although he put about 15 seconds into the leaders. First he was joined by Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and they worked together as a duo over the summit and on the descent. Close on their heels were Valverde and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) – and as these two pairs neared the finish, Valverde lit it up to close the gap to Horner and Sanchez in order to protect his preeminent position as overall race leader at the end of the day. Sanchez (about 1’40” down after losing serious time on Stage 1) countered for the stage win, super stoked as he crossed the finish line and letting out an almost primordial roar as if he were lunging at a woolly mammoth (featured photo)! The Lion of Flanders has nothing on Sanchez!

Valverde and Horner crossed the line together two seconds behind Sanchez. Although Valverde’s comeback took some serious effort, I was sad to see Horner not stay away for a major win in this European stage race he has enjoyed so often over the years since his first attempt in the late 90's.

A few days ago, at the start of the Tour de Basque, Horner spent a fair amount of time at and off the front of the peloton. Clearly he’s been feeling good. I called him up after that stage to interview him for NBC Universal Sports, which is covering the race daily on US TV in the major urban areas that carry their station. We tried to fit the interview into the broadcast during Stage 2, but were not able to, so I’m posting it here, with thanks out to Horner and to Universal Sports. To watch videos from the broadcasts (less optimal on a Mac with Safari, by the way, and better on Mozilla Firefox), go to:

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=464433.html#basque+country+central

To contextualize his comments about the final sprint between Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Valverde, if you didn’t see Universal Sports' TV coverage, here’s what happened. As the sprint came to the line, Freire’s path took a straight line from slightly right of center of the road diagonally toward the left side. Because Valverde was on his left, as Freire neared the left side of the road, Valverde was forced up against the barriers, with still a few meters left to go in the sprint. He raised his hand in protest, just before Freire crossed the finish line in first place with Valverde on his wheel. The officials relegated Freire to second place and gave Valverde the win.

Here are Horner’s thoughts on Stage 1 and that sprint: (btw, I had trouble with audio file upload of the 5-minute Horner interview after Stage 1, below. The video here is all about audio - please ignore the image quality).

FYI, I always thought the rule was that a rider couldn’t change his line during the sprint, and because Freire’s line was consistently straight – but just on a diagonal path – it seemed open for debate whether he violated the rule. Further thought offered a couple of options: as he got to the left side of the road in front of the finish line, in fact his line had to change from diagonal to straight in order to cross the line, or else he also would’ve hit the barriers. Also, the current UCI rule (2.3.036) has changed its wording slightly, modifying it in 2005 to now read: “Riders shall be strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others.” I don’t have the original wording before the modification, but by using the word “lane” rather than “line,” it seems to reference parallel paths straight down the road, like car lanes or lanes on a track. Similarly, by calling out “endangering others,” it leaves room for an official’s discretion about what that means in each particular case.

Ironically, in the sprint the very next day at the Stage 2 finish line, Valverde and Freire went at it again, this time starting from the far left side of the road with Valverde in the lead and Freire on his right but slightly behind. Valverde’s line moved diagonally toward the right, then straight, then diagonally right again, then straight, then diagonally right again as he crossed the finish line, with Freire still on his right and therefore pushed up against the barriers. The officials didn’t say a thing, maybe because Freire chose not to raise his hand in protest. So despite similar tactics and positioning during two back-to-back sprints for Stage 1 and Stage 2, Valverde came out with two wins and Freire with two second-places, even though Freire crossed the line first on day 1.

Team RadioShack - First Training Camp for this Powerhouse Team

With cycling becoming more and more of a global sport, Team RadioShack's camp in Tucson, AZ, in early December is likely the only time that the entire team will be on U.S. soil for the 2010 racing season. I was invited to attend the media day, which brought journalists from around the U.S. and the world, because Lance was giving a press conference and introducing his new team.

Training camps require a ton of logistical planning: setting up interviews, finalizing team equipment adjustments, arranging travel for riders from 16 different nations, meeting sponsors' needs, setting rider schedules for the upcoming season, scouting appropriate training routes, dealing with the constant public curiosity of the team, making a comfortable environment for the riders to start to get to know each other, etc. The camp actually served more as a team-building, meet and greet exercise than it did as a place for the riders to log long hours in the saddle. Though seven of the riders will kick-off their racing season at the Tour Down Under in Australia from January 17 - 24, most of them still have a bit more time to gradually build their fitness for the racing season which lies ahead.

Here's a picture of Chris Horner and me with Levi in the Astana kit right behind and between us.

I had the opportunity to join the team on one of its training rides - a short and easy ride of just over two hours. One highlight from the ride was spending a considerable amount of time chatting with Chris Horner. It's always fun to see Chris, and he's a rider who has interesting insights into the world of the professional peloton. Chris had an unusual season in 2009 - he's had great fitness but also numerous injuries: crashing out of the Tour of CA with a knee injury, crashing out of the Tour of the Basque Country with a broken clavicle, crashing out of the Tour of Italy with a hairline fracture in his leg and rounding out the season with a broken hand in the fourth day of the Tour of Spain. The amazing thing about Chris is he shrugs it all off and keeps looking forward. He's really an eternally positive guy, who loves to race his bike and deals with all of the ups and downs along the way with little complaining - even when his Astana team from this season (2009) got months behind paying salaries. He controls the things he can (like coming to Team RadioShack to move to a more stable team and work environment), and makes the best of the things he can't - like keeping a positive attitude when he's injured. He's also quite a character, and one can't help but laugh when hanging out with Chris.

I also got the chance to catch up with Lance Armstrong on the bike as well that day. It was great to ride with him again, after being teammates way back in 1991 on the Subaru Montgomery team. One thing about Lance that most are aware of is how exceptionally busy he is. But most of you probably don't know that he constantly emails and texts while on his bike. Spending ten minutes riding shoulder-to-shoulder with him was a real treat. I realized at one point when we were bumping elbows and shoulders, gesturing, etc., that I was right back in that place of some 18 years ago - two guys out doing what they love - riding their bikes - and talking about many things cycling related. At one point, I realized how rare it is to get to rub elbows with him - literally - because of the inherent risks of doing so.

We led the RadioShack train back into town, and as we approached the resort, the ride ended. With that, we said goodbye and he slipped through a side door to avoid the people who invariably are waiting for him to try to get a picture, an autograph, to say hi or just get a chance to see the man who is trying to beat the odds, and win his eighth Tour de France in 2010. By the way, when I asked Lance if he could "put it together" (referring to winning the Tour in 2010), he told me he wouldn't be out here if he didn't think he could.

Tour of Spain Stage 12 Winner Ryder Hesjedal on Electronic Shifting

Ryder has proven to be a valuable asset to the Garmin - Transitions team. He spent the first 11 days of the 21 day Vuelta a Espana largely helping to control the race to set up the team's sprinter, Tyler Farrar, for his first taste of a Grand Tour stage victory. In stage 10, Ryder put himself into the winning four rider break but ultimately had to settle for second after being out-sprinted by Australian breakaway specialist Simon Gerrans of the startup Cervelo Test Team.

In stage 11, everything clicked and Tyler Farrar picked up his first, and in fact his team's first, road stage win of a Grand Tour (they had previously won a team time trial at the 2008 Giro d'Italia).

After a rest day, stage 12 again saw Ryder in the nearly day-long breakaway group. Today was going to end differently, however, as the finish was atop the massive climb up the Velefique. Ryder had to contest the sprint with David Garcia - the only other man who survived from the break all the way to the finish to contest the win, and he chocked up his first Grand Tour stage win! Amazingly, for the former mountain bike racer now in his sixth Grand Tour appearance, it was his FIRST road victory on European soil. After he won he said it was a "lifetime worth of work" to get this stage victory on the Velefique. Congrats, Ryder!

I had a chance to ride with Ryder doing some winter training at his home away from home in Maui, in late November. He was on the exact bike he used to finish out his season in Europe, including his Vuelta stage win. I asked him a little bit about his electronic Dura Ace shifting:

If you experience trouble playing the video after it downloads, try grabbing the progress icon in the progress bar and moving it to get things started.

Three Months in 10 Minutes.... The World's, Weddings, Pro's Training & Team Camps

I know, most bloggers who take a three-month hiatus would tell their readers that they were signing off for a while, but I never expected that I would not have blogged sooner. I mean, there have been so many great things to blog about: like when I officiated Jonas and Justina Carney's wedding (Jonas and I were team mates, and we've remained very close friends). It was a true honor to be asked to officiate for them, and also great to be able to repay the favor to Jonas, who married Christina and I almost five years ago. It was great to hang out with Alex Candelario, Reid Mumford, Mike Creed and their wives, and entertaining to watch Danny Pate crash the party.

Or, I could have told you about Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo (http://www.levisgranfondo.com/), held on the same stunning course in Sonoma County, CA we raced on in the Coors Classic back in 1988 (where I took 2nd). 3,500 people from around the country, and even world came to challenge themselves, meet Levi and his wife Odessa, and raise money for two great causes. It was one of those events which was really fun to announce but I've got to say I almost wish I had been riding! Here's a picture of me interviewing Levi moments before the start.

It was also great to see Scott Nydam there (BMC), who's been recovering from a bad accident and head injury earlier this season and Paul Mach (Bissell) my fellow Davis, CA resident. Scott looked like he had regained his old form from earlier this year, and he was the first rider to finish the gran fondo. On top of that, he was getting married two weeks later - congratulations Scott & Jennifer! It seems weddings were in the air.... On the stage after the event, left to right; Levi Leipheimer, his wife Odessa, Scott Nydam, Carlos Perez (event promoter) and me.

Carlos, the promoter, was a great guy who put a huge event together with his crew in just a few short months. This one sold out this year so make sure to register early if you want to do it in 2010.

Likewise, there was the World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland. There was no question that big Fabian Cancellara, the reigning Olympic TT champion and 2X World TT champ was the odds-on-favorite for the TT. He easily won, but oh!, what a day for American Tom Zirbel, who ended the day 4th! Here's a short video of us calling his TT on Universal Sports: http://tinyurl.com/Zirbel-Worlds-TT

Tom is a huge motor who also won the season-long National Racing Calendar in the U.S. this year, and he'll be riding for the Garmin-Transitions team in 2010 - so he'll get a big dose of European racing. Most people don't realize how good Tom is; he beat Lance Armstrong in every TT they both did in 2009 - the Tour of CA (Tom 7th, Lance 14th), the Tour of the Gila (Tom 2nd, Lance 3rd). Granted, Armstrong was coming off of 3 1/2 years of retirement, but that's still a pretty big accomplishment for a domestic pro!

With the conclusion of Levi's Gran Fondo, the road season has pretty much been over, and hence my down time. But things have been ramping back up as of late - talking with teams and trying to figure out which team camps I'll visit to interview riders and staff and hopefully get on a team ride with some of the guys. It's an exciting time of year because it's time to think of all of the team changes for 2010, and also to work on my announcing calendar.

There's been some time for vacationing in Maui along the way. And when in Maui, one resident you always want to try to hook up with for a ride is Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. Ryder had a great year, and capped it off by placing 2nd in a stage of the Tour of Spain, and then four days later winning a mountain top finish stage. I've got some video of Ryder which I'll add under a separate blog entry soon, but I leave you with this picture of good friend, and fellow vacationer, Michael Aisner. Michael used to own and run the largest bicycle race in America back in the 1980s. Most people credit him with putting the U.S. on the modern-day racing map. Here, Michael is at 10,000', atop Haleakala volcano. I know many people will say "10,000', what's the big deal? I've been higher in Colorado!" The cool thing here is that the climb starts at sea level, and Michael's about 5,000' above the clouds, contemplating the view from above - a view we don't see often.

Next week, I'm heading off to the first team camp for Lance's new team: RadioShack. For those of you who haven't heard yet, Lance has left Astana and formed a new, U.S. based team. He has also hired about a dozen of his former teammates to come with him including Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, as well as a bunch of other international and American talent. In total, there are 26 riders from 16 countries, here's the official team roster:

Lance Armstrong (USA)

Fumiyuki Beppu (JAP)

Sam Bewley (NZL)

Jani Brajkovic (SLO)

Matthew Busche (USA)

Ben Hermans (BEL)

Chris Horner (USA)

Daryl Impey (SAF)

Markel Irizar (SPA)

Andreas Klöden (GER)

Levi Leipheimer (USA)

Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA)

Fuyu Li (CHI)

Tiago Machado (POR)

Jason McCartney (USA)

Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ)

Sérgio Paulinho (POR)

Yaroslav Popovych (UKR)

Gregory Rast (SUI)

Sébastien Rosseler (BEL)

Ivan Rovny (RUS)

José Luis Rubiera (SPA)

Bjorn Selander (USA)

Gert Steegmans (BEL)

Tomas Vaitkus (LIT)

Haimar Zubeldia (SPA)

Big Days in the Big Mountains at La Vuelta a Espana

Today was an epic battle for day 14 of La Vuelta a Espana; it was the third day of mountain top finishes in a row - on paper, arguably the hardest three days of racing in a Grand Tour this year. When the overall contenders hit the 12% - 14% slopes of the Sierra de la Pandera climb to the finish, it was the 23 year old Dutchman, Robert Gesink who put in surge at the front after Ivan Basso (Italy) had gone to the front to stretch some legs. Gesink, who came into the day in second place overall and only 27" behind Alejandro Valverde, timed his surge perfectly as Valverde was already in trouble from the effort Ivan Basso had made. Valverde came unhitched from the Gesink led group, and it looked like Valverde would likely loose his jersey. But, Valverde didn't panic - which likely would have caused him to ride until he blew up; instead, he stayed within himself over those few kilometers which were the steepest part of the climb, and later proceeded to reel in first Ivan Basso and Cadel Evans (Australia), and later the man who was the source of his alarm (and pain!) - Robert Gesink. By the finish Valverde had even shed Gesink and picked up another 4", which makes Valverde look more and more like a man who cannot be broken in this three-week test. Here's Valverde before everything started to unravel:

Oh, did I mention that it was also raining? Well, it was.

The winner today came from an early group of escapees, which made it to the final two climbs with a healthy advantage of over 7' on the pack. Damiano Cunego emerged from that group of nine men, to take his second victory of this year's Vuelta - and they have both come in mountain top finishes - his first being back in stage eight on the Alto de Aitana. Here's Cunego getting close to the summit, surrounded by throngs of enthusiastic fans:

By the time Cunego made it to the finish, he still had over 2' advantage over his nearest chaser:

Had it not been for the very untimely puncture on the Sierra Nevada climb yesterday, in stage 13, Cadel Evans (Australia) might have been able to challenge Valverde for the overall - because he can out time trial Valverde on the penultimate day on stage 20. But, for Evans, no support cars were within sight when he punctured on the Sierra Nevada because all the team cars were stuck behind the exploding peloton on the narrow roads. Evans lost almost a minute while the neutral support fiddled with putting a new rear wheel on his bike (possibly the slowest wheel change I've ever seen!), and finally his team car arrived with his spare bike. He chased hard, initially making up ground, but eventually cracked from the effort and lost just over a minute to Alejandro Valverde. That has pretty much taken the wind out of his sails for any chances of an overall victory.

There are still seven more days of racing in this Spanish Grand Tour, and though there are lots of mountains looming on the horizon, there are no actual mountain top finishes remaining. Valverde is a better time trialist than his nearest challenger (Gesink) and pretty similar to Samuel Sanchez (Olympic Gold Medalst - Beijing) who sits in third at 1'10". At this point, La Vuelta looks to be Valverde's to loose.

Only after the next seven days will anyone know for certain, but it looks more and more like Alejandro Valverde will finally take his first ever overall Grand Tour Victory on September 20th in Madrid, Spain.

You can check out the daily action on Universal Sports TV:

http://www.universalsports.tv/Universal_Sports_on_TV.html)

and on the web (which has finally started archiving our TV broadcasts) at:

http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=204770092

After Four Days of Racing, La Vuelta a Espana Makes the Transfer from Belgium to Spain

The first four days of the Tour of Spain have been a battle of nerves, constant fighting for position, luck and attrition. Considering the mountainous course the organizers have served up in the final Grand Tour of the year, you wouldn't have known it from the first four days which began in The Netherlands, dipped briefly into Germany and finished in Belgium. With the narrow roads, bricks and cobblestones, innumerable medians, roundabouts and various other road furniture, wind and rain, the collective frayed nerves of the peloton could be seen play out time and again - crashes, both large and small, have been a constant companion along with the race. The worst crash was on day four, and you can view it as Steve and I called it for Universal Sports:

http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?id=646459&db_oem_id=23000

Unfortunately for American Chris Horner, he ended up breaking his wrist in that crash and has been forced out of competition for the fourth time this season; Tour of CA in March (knee injury), Tour of the Basque Country (broken clavicle), Giro d'Italia (broken leg), and now this. Chris always has such a good attitude through it all, and he's an incredibly talented and respected athlete. He was one of the "protected" riders on Team Astana for the Vuelta, and I was hoping to see him shine come the mountains of Spain. It is truly a shame to see him injured again, and I wish him a fast recovery and a much more fortunate season in 2010.

After that crash, there were only six riders left to contest the finish, and Andre Greipel, the German riding for the U.S. Columbia - HTC team took his 16th win of the season. He's racked up the second largest number of race wins in men's professional cycling this year, behind his teammate Mark Cavendish - who just won six stages of the Tour de France, and has over 20 wins to his credit this season.

Even in the less than appealing weather, huge crowds awaited the riders in The Netherlands and Belgium, surprising even the race organizers and the riders themselves, but most everyone will be glad to leave the treacherous conditions behind as they head into the more familiar terrain of this race - which will be found in Spain. Mountains get slowly introduced over the next several days, but by Sunday there will be no mistake about what lies ahead - the terrain in this Vuelta will be the more difficult than the Tours of Italy or France. The climbs are ridiculously steep, some reaching grades close to 20% in the ensuing days, and that all begins with Sunday's 111 mile affair which has eight different rated climbs - this will be the first day to see who is likely to be amongst the contenders when the race finishes two weeks later, in Madrid. Luckily for the riders, the climbs on day eight are not the steepest, or the longest climbs of the race, but those days will not be far away.

There are three consecutive mountain top finishes on days 12, 13 and 14, and if anyone still has any snap in his legs at that point there will not be many riders left to contend with. With three consecutive days finishing on major climbs, a rider who's got the acceleration and the staying power to back up an attack will be able to gain big time on most all, if not all, of his rivals.

With just under 40 miles of time trials in this year's race, one thing's for certain - the winner will make his mark in the mountains.