Christopher Horner

Christopher Horner
	Christopher Horner (2013)
To person
Nickname	Chris
Date of birth	October 23, 1971
nation	United States
discipline	Street
End of career	2019
Team (s)
1996 ; 1997–1999 ; 2000–2001 ; 2002 ; 2003 ; 2004 ; from 10th 2004–2005 ; 2006–2007 ; 2008–2009 ; 2010–2011 ; 2012–2013 ; 2014 ; 2015 ; 2016 ; 2018–2019	NutraFig-Colorado Cyclist ; Française des Jeux ; Mercury-Viatel ; Prime Alliance Cycling Team ; Saturn Cycling Team ; Webcor Cycling Team ; Saunier Duval-Prodir ; Davitamon-Lotto ; Astana ; Team RadioShack ; RadioShack Leopard ; Lampre-Merida ; Airgas-Safeway ; Lupus Racing Team ; Team Illuminate
Most important successes
	Vuelta a España 2013
	Last updated: February 27, 2020

Christopher Horner (born October 23, 1971 in Okinawa , Japan ) is a retired American cyclist .

Athletic career

Horner drove in 1995 for the small US team PAA Nutrafig and two years later drove for the French team FDJ . Since his only front result was a third place at the Grand Prix Ouest France , he went back to his home country and drove there one after the other for the teams Mercury , Prime Alliance , Saturn and Webcor . During this time he drove a few victories in cycling races on the UCI America Tour and other smaller races.

In 2000 Horner won stages at the Tour de Langkawi and 2003 at the Tour de Georgia , and also secured overall victory in both races. Due to his eighth place at the 2004 World Cup in Verona , Italy , he got a contract with the Saunier Duval Prodir team at the end of the season . There he achieved his greatest success to date in 2005, winning a mountain stage and finishing fifth in the Tour de Suisse . In his participation in the Tour de France in 2005 and 2007, he was 33rd and 15th in the overall standings, respectively. From 2006 to 2007 he drove for the Belgian Predictor Lotto team . In 2008 and 2009 he drove again for the Astana team and between 2010 and 2011 switched to the radio hack around the doping-confessed Lance Armstrong .

2010 Horner was able to record his most successful season. After overall victory at the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco and top ten placements at the Flèche Wallonne , Liège-Bastogne-Liège , the Amstel Gold Race and the Tour of California , Horner was able to finish the Tour de France in 9th place. He also won the overall classification of the California Tour in 2011. Until 2013 Horner drove in the Luxembourg team Radioshack-Nissan .

After missing almost the entire season in 2013 due to persistent injuries, Horner came to the Vuelta a España 2013 with just 14 days of racing , where he showed the best performance of his career to date. With two stage wins, he was able to take the overall lead twice, but only lost it to Vincenzo Nibali only one day later . At 41 years and 314 days, he was the oldest driver in history who was able to conquer a stage and the leadership jersey on one of the three major national tours (as of 2019). On the nineteenth stage he was able to turn a three-second gap on Nibali into an equally large lead and even extend it with a second place on the twentieth stage on the Alto de Angliru . On the following day, Horner finally made the overall victory, as expected, and became the oldest overall winner of one of the so-called Grand Tours at the age of 41 years and 327 days .

Horner's surprising victory in the Tour of Spain has been linked to doping by various commentators . Reference was made to allegedly missed training controls and irregularities in the biological passport .

In April 2014, Chris Horner suffered a serious lung injury, four broken ribs and a head wound in a collision with a car near Lake Como . As a result of this accident, he was unable to participate in the 2014 Giro d'Italia as planned . At the following Tour de France he finished 17th in the overall standings. For the subsequent Vuelta a España 2014 , Horner was deleted from his team Lampre due to low cortisol levels , which, according to the voluntary rules of the team association Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible , prevented a start, so that he could not swear his title.

Horner received no more contracts with UCI ProTeams and ended his international career after engagements with low-class teams after the end of the 2019 season.

Professional

In 2019 Chris Horner got a contract with NBC to comment on the upcoming bike races of the year. On the occasion of his engagement as a commentator, he said that although he still had an elite license, he no longer considered himself a professional cyclist.