- Chris Horner
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For other people named Christopher Horner, see Christopher Horner (disambiguation).
Christopher Lee Horner
Horner in 2010Personal information Full name Christopher Horner Born October 23, 1971
Okinawa, JapanHeight 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Weight 63.5 kg (140 lb; 10.00 st) Team information Current team Team RadioShack Discipline Road Role Rider Rider type All-rounder Professional team(s) 1997–1999
2000–2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006–2007
2008–2009
2010–Française des Jeux
Mercury
Prime Alliance
Saturn
Webcor Builders
Saunier Duval-Prodir
Davitamon-Lotto
Astana
Team RadioShackMajor wins Tour de Langkawi (2000)
Tour de Georgia (2003)
Champion, USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (2002, 2003, 2004)
Tour of the Basque Country (2010)
Tour of California (2011)Infobox last updated on
June, 2011Christopher Horner (born October 23, 1971) is an American professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Team RadioShack. A native and current resident of Bend, Oregon,[1] Horner dominated the American road racing scene[2] by winning the points standings in the 2002, 2003 and 2004 USA Cycling National Racing Calendar.
Contents
Career
PAA-NutraFig (1995-1996)
Horner turned pro in 1995 with the PAA-NutraFig team.[3] He captured his first major victory in a stage win of the Tour DuPont in 1996.
Française des Jeux (1997-1999)
He was then asked to ride in Europe with French team Française des Jeux. From 1997 to 1999 he had three frustrating seasons with this team.
Mercury, Prime Alliance, Saturn, and Webcor (2000-2004)
In 2000 Horner returned to America to resume a record-setting domestic career, riding with Mercury in 2000, Prime Alliance in 2002, Saturn in 2003 and Webcor Builders in 2004. Horner has won almost every important race in the US racing calendar, with the notable exception of the USPRO Championships.
Saunier-Duval (2004-2005)
Horner decided to move to Saunier Duval-Prodir after his top-ten finish in the 2004 UCI World Road Cycling Championship because he wanted to give the Tour de France a try. After being injured in the beginning of 2005, Horner showed strong performance in the USPRO Championships and won his first major European victory by taking the sixth stage of the 2005 Tour de Suisse. He then earned his place on the 2005 Tour de France team and nearly won the Miramas to Montpellier stage when he and Sylvain Chavanel refused to cooperate in the final kilometers and were caught by the peloton.
Davitamon and Predictor (2006-2007)
He made a move to the Belgian UCI ProTour squad Davitamon-Lotto for the 2006 season.
For 2007 Horner signed with Ed Krall Racing for the cyclo-cross season.
Astana (2008-2009)
In 2008 Horner moved to the Astana Team. Chris earned the nickname "The smiler" for his unflappable expression of happiness, even during the most excruciating physical challenges, and "The Yahoo Kid" for his wild exclamations after winning a race. Teammates Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong call him "The Redneck".
In the 2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Horner carried racer Bill Demong with his broken bicycle (who was from another team) to the finish line.[4][5]
RadioShack (2010-2011)
On October 4, 2009 it was confirmed that Horner would compete for Team RadioShack in the next two seasons.[6] In one of his strongest European campaigns, Horner garnered first overall at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Tour of the Basque Country), including a stage win in the critical 6th stage ITT, defeating overall threat Alejandro Valverde. Horner also achieved several top 10 placings in the Spring classics of the Fleche Wallone, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Amstel Gold. He and his RadioShack teammates did well at the 2010 Tour of California, with Chris putting on a particularly strong performance in the last stage of the race as a member of a final breakaway at Thousand Oaks. Horner finished fourth overall, 1 min 4 sec behind winner Michael Rogers, and just 39 seconds behind teammate Levi Leipheimer in overall time. His good form also resulted in a 10th place overall at the Tour de France, as the first-placed US rider, in spite of dedicating himself in the first stages to supporting his captain Lance Armstrong.
In 2011 Horner continued his success at Pais Vasco with a second-place finish, as well as 4th in Catalunya.
Chris Horner then accomplished the highest-profile result of his career by winning the May 2011 Tour de California stage race. He scored a major solo victory on the 4th stage, after making significant time gains on the day's final mountain finish in San Jose. He maintained his hold on the yellow jersey until the tour's queen stage, where he completed a two-man breakaway finish with teammate Levi Leipheimer to finalize the overall lead, and at age 39 became the oldest rider in history to win that tour.[7][8]
His participation at the 2011 Tour de France was short lived after a crash left him out of the competition.
Major results
- 1996
- 1st Lancaster Classic
- 1st Stage Tour DuPont
- 1997
- 3rd GP Ouest-France
- 2000
- 1st
Overall, Le Tour de Langkawi
- 1st
Overall, Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 2001
- 1st
Overall, Solano Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stage 5 Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stage 3 Cascade Classic
- 2002
- Champion USA Cycling National Racing Calendar
- 1st
Overall, Fitchburg Longsjo Classic
- 1st
Overall, Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st
Overall Sea Otter Classic
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st
Overall Solano Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 3 Nature Valley Grand Prix
- 1st Stage 3 Cascade Classic
- 2nd National Championship, Road, ITT, Elite
- 2003
- Champion, USA Cycling National Racing Calendar
- 1st
Overall, Tour de Georgia
- 1st Mountains classification
- 1st
Overall, Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 1st
Overall, Solano Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 4
- 1st San Francisco Grand Prix (T-Mobile International)
- 1st McLane Pacific Cycling Classic Road Race
- 1st Stage 2 Fitchburg Longsjo Classic
- 1st Stage 3 Fitchburg Longsjo Classic
- 2004
- Champion, USA Cycling National Racing Calendar
- 1st
Overall, Sea Otter Classic
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st
Overall, Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 1st Prologue
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st
Overall, Pomona Valley Stage Race
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st
Overall, Temecula Stage Race
- 1st Pine Flat Road Race
- 3rd Overall Tour de Georgia
- 9th Road Race World Championchips
- 2005
- 5th Overall Tour de Suisse
- 1st Stage 6
- 2006
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie
- 10th Overall Paris–Nice
- 2007
- 5th Overall Tour de Romandie
- 15th Overall Tour de France
- 2008
- 1st Stage 3 Tour de White Rock
- 7th Giro di Lombardia
- 2009
- 2nd Overall, Tour de l'Ain
- 2010
- 1st
Overall Vuelta al País Vasco
- 1st Stage 6 ITT
- 2nd Overall Giro di Sardegna
- 4th Overall Tour of California
- 10th Overall Tour de France
- 7th La Flèche Wallonne
- 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 10th Amstel Gold Race
- 2011
- 1st
Overall Tour of California
- 1st Stage 4
- 2nd Stage 7
- 2nd Overall Vuelta al País Vasco
- 4th Overall Volta a Catalunya
Grand Tour General Classification results timeline
Grand Tour 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Giro
- - - - WD - - Tour
33 64 15 - - 10 WD Vuelta
- 20 36 - WD - WD = withdrew
External links
References
- ^ USA Cycling biography
- ^ Tooting his own Horner - Part I
- ^ Eurosport.com Chris Horner
- ^ The Everyday Athlete » Blog Archive » Chris Horner Gives Fallen Rider (and bike) a 2k Ride to the Finish
- ^ Swift, Heidi (2008-08-16). "Chris Horner proves why he's the people's pro". The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/cycling/index.ssf/2008/08/bends_chris_horner_proves_why.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "Horner signs on with RadioShack for two years", Cycling News, 2009-09-04. Retrieved on 2009-10-02.
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/horner-100-per-cent-focused-on-tour-de-france-after-california-victory
- ^ "Horner, 39, oldest to win Tour of California". The San Francisco Chronicle. 2011-05-23. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/22/SP5H1JJHB2.DTL.
Riders on Team RadioShack Fumiyuki Beppu | Sam Bewley | Janez Brajkovič | Matthew Busche | Manuel Cardoso | Philip Deignan | Ben Hermans | Chris Horner | Robert Hunter | Ben King | Andreas Klöden | Michał Kwiatkowski | Markel Irizar | Levi Leipheimer | Geoffroy Lequatre | Tiago Machado | Jason McCartney | Robbie McEwen | Dimitry Muravyev | Nelson Oliveira | Sérgio Paulinho | Yaroslav Popovych | Grégory Rast | Sébastien Rosseler | Ivan Rovny | Bjørn Selander | Jesse Sergent | Haimar Zubeldia | Manager: Johan Bruyneel
Categories:- 1971 births
- Living people
- American cyclists
- People from Bend, Oregon
- Tour de Suisse stage winners
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