There is a report that Chris Horner has officially signed a contract for next season. But, his agent, ex-pro rider Baden Cooke isn’t releasing the name of the team.
I’m not sure what that is all about. Maybe a big launching press conference or something. You’d think that it would be a little anticlimactic considering how last minute it is.
I’m not sure why Chris is having so much trouble holding a job on the Pro Tour level. Obviously, by his results, he is in the top 5% of ability of the pro peleton. His agent, Baden Cooke, said recently that “It’s age discrimination.”
I think it is a bigger issue than just that. His results are out of this world. I think that might be more of the reason. I think Trek would have kept him if there wasn’t some underlying issue going on with him. But, it hasn’t really kept other riders of the same ability and circumstances from getting jobs at the Pro Tour level, so maybe Baden is right.
Last year, after winning the Vuelta, and having the same problem, Chris said to Velonews that-
At the jerk off party!! Where else?? Age discrimination my ass. He’s got a huge skeleton in the closet. Dude is on the list. Why would a team take chances with a potential whistle blower. It’s an “i go down, we all go down” world for Chris and the higher powers know it.
hey chris, bring extra baby oil..
I’ve never hired him because I thought he was too strange. Too low class as he rides dirt bikes and eats burgers, a terrible fit for most teams right there. Not like Pro Teams are after NASCAR dads
Plus, he has nothing to add to the Weasel’s book at Stifel Financial. There’s always the kick back to remember
It’s hard for me to think a World Tour manager or Director is sitting around worrying about if he doped. Don’t those guys generally sit around and wonder who is NOT juiced and begin to get them into the “system”. Come on, Baden Cooke is his representative! Whatever the issue may be, it goes beyond his own bio passport or his numbers.
Who is reporting the signing, Steve?
It seems a lot of people have suspicions about Horner. I have no idea if he is clean or not. But I do know that he was listed as a “0” on the UCI Index of Suspicion of doping based on biological passport data that was leaked to L’ Equipe preceding the 2010 TdF.
0 or 1 being suspected as being clean. Anything above 1 being suspicious with the highest value being a 9 awarded to Dennis Menchov.
I enjoy Horner’s racing style, his interviews, and occasional articles. Plus being over 40 myself, I am happy seeing guys like Horner, Voigt and Tilford still riding professionally. I hope to see him continue to ride at the World Tour level.
Horner is ‘Rider 15’ in the USADA ‘Reasoned Decision’ ; )
Nice guys do dope, ask JV he has a whole team of them 😀
Doping allegations have followed Horner for a long, long time. One of many Matt DeCanio claims was Horner shared/taught the EPO/HGH/Test cocktail.
Now, Matt can get into a rant mode with the worst of them, but the problem is much of what was buried in the rants has later been discovered to be entirely true.
Jim,
You are missing his appeal! There’s a pretty big group of cyclists that go for the Horner ethos. They ride for fun and the big benefit of eating cheeseburgers and not be a Walmart fattie.
Besides, I’m guessing Horner brings his own money. Why would you turn that down?
What’s Thom’s cut of an American World Tour contract these days?
It’s Douche Bags like this that hang around long enough to get a ‘program’ together by parlaying contracts and winnings forward to buy better stuff, hire better ‘trainers,’ joining the right teams that were at the forefront of learning the game, creating the game, inventing the game…building and building until he got the results. Brav-fucking-oh, you did it. The guy avoided cancer, EPO death, blood poisoning, getting popped by the controls, weaseled from team-to-team and now at the age of forty-something he is at the top of his game. Yeah right.
Excuse me but old Bolas Azules has been around the game a long time but please, can someone tell me about his amazing results as a Junior rider or his early years? Oh, an old donkey that found the branch of the Bruyneel coaching tree, really? I hope he ends-up with Vinokourov.
Whatever. It’s such a god damned old story. How bout we talk about a few of the recent, brutal cross races in Belgie? Now that was some good super charged entertainment. Was Ben Berden the only one to ever really get nailed for dope in Cross? Mario DeClerq too I guess, but he’s still interviewed in the middle of lots of races and is generally regarded as a National Hero. It see,s like the controls are a little more lax in cross. Does the UCI realize that with only 20 – 30 real pros in the world, that a few doping positives would essentially destroy the entire sport, and as a result are sort of letting them just do their thing?
Well we all know Sven is dirty…why is Berden accepted in the cross scene? If I were a clean US pro
I wouldn’t want him out there.
Austria team : https://twitter.com/rainer_parzer/status/534628381963591680
I keep hearing this “doping positive would destroy the sport” and it’s just not true.
-Festina
-CERA
-Oil for Drugs
-Operation Puerto
-Fuentes trial
-EPO years
The list is endless and he sport sort of continues on anyway looking more ridiculous with each passing year. Will many of us stop riding becaause of it? No.
I disagree. The sport of road cycling is and has been destroyed for a while now. The lie just keeps getting bigger, its not like “we’ve moved past that terrible era” and have started something new. I just turned on to cyclingnews to read about another astana rider popping positive. Nibali is “working” with Pantani’s old Dr. Gimme a fucking break!!!!! In what other sport do individual athletes have their own Dr.?
Road racing can survive it because theres so many of them, that the sport as a whole continues, albeit deformed. I dare anyone to name even half the amount of known dopers that are racing clean on the road.
As far as any of us quitting riding because of it, different subject. That’s exactly what we should do, keep riding, stop racing. Supporting the sport through racing is being part of the problem.
If 3 major stars in cross popped positive tomorrow, where would that leave the sport? Lets just say that Nys, Van de Haar, and Pauwels (whose brother dropped dead while on a cross racing bike) all got popped and suspended. We’d be watching Skeletor (Klaas Vantourenhout) racing the new kids and Tom Meeusen. Still pretty good, but I prefer watching Nys do his thing. I think millions of others feel the same way including the UCI. If it were revealed that this is true and the UCI is still corrupt, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised for 1 second…..
You’re going off of pure speculation and you have some dangerous beliefs. You cannot take into consideration junior results from anyone. WHy? Young people are still developing. With the case of tall people, this is even more pronounced generally as it takes longer to get coordinated and get fill out i.e. Chris.
Chris is one of the more gifted athletes riding today. He got few results in a dirty era and many in a clean one, even though he is older. How is that possible? It’d be hard not to figure out why. Chris is a super cool dude and a terrific sportsman. One of the most talented athletes I’ve seen in any sport. ‘Nuff said.
When was this so-called “clean” era?
(comment has nothing to do with Chris)
Levi, if you didn’t say anything stupid or ignorant, you wouldn’t say anything at all. I can’t beleive you can be such a jocksniffer! You never even raced! People, please be advised that I have resigned my associations with Levi. Do not connect me with him. Oh, and of course he is not Levi Leipheimer he has claimed to be in the past. Sin Bolas might be a better name.
This does not make sense. The Levi I remember had no biking skills at all except for going in a straight line very fast. This one excells in cross knowledge. What happened?
Just because one is dominant, does not make him dirty. Are you going to say Bobby Fischer was cheating?
Just accept that people can be dominant. Good for them…
he fucking rode for astana.. wtf.. zero schmero.. the UCI is part of the doping equation.. CORRUPTION!
ASTANA!!!
People can be ignorant too. Sven Nys rode for Rabbobank for a decade or more. You know the Rabbobank team that had a team wide doping program? If you think Sven wasn’t in on that then that’s truly ignorant.
The biggest hurdle for fans to get over is the fact that guys they like, guys that show class and style take drugs. Its true though. Cancellara, Cippolini, Sven Nys, Tom Boonen, Danilo DiLuca, Davide Rebellin, Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich, Bjarne Riis, Miguel Indurain, Pedro Delgado, Greg Lemond, Laurent Fignon, Marco Pantani and yes……Chris Horner all won huge races in the middle of a huge doping era. Not to mention LA, Floyd and 2 million others.
Do the math…..
Chris needs to sign with TradeWind Energy. You guys will own Cat 1 racing in the midwest.
UCI does require teams to meet certain age requirements such that the majority of the riders on a team must be under 28 (or something like that). That would pretty much allow a convenient way for teams to reject an older rider, for whatever reason.
The amount of real and honest knowledge you have about this subject could fit in a thimble.
Ditto for “Levi”.
I’m referring to Bolas Azules’ comments of course. I agree with both Jay and JB, who both made good comments.
Is common facts that older sportsman does not recover from effort or injury like younger man. Cycling is brutal sport and team director must see big picture. That leaves not much room for older runners. In case of Horner, he is a special one and has shown he still have value to the team. Horner is worth the risk of big salary. He is winner and has not been touched by drug scandal. Is good that 40 years old guy is competitive!
P.s. sorry for poor english grammar
Airgas?! And the jokes about xenon begin in 3-2-1…