I’ve been sort of avoiding commenting on Chris Horner and his situation since……well since, I guess he started racing bikes. I’m a Chris Horner fan. I admit. I like the guy. But, he is most likely going to suffer the fate of all the others that have been exposed to be on the dark side recently and have to pay a price.

Chris, historically, hadn’t done too much to draw any individual attention to himself. That obviously changed when he spanked everyone at the Tour of Spain this year. I wrote a webpost a couple months ago, Something is Screwy with Chris Horner, wondering why he would call his shot and say he was planning on winning a Grand Tour when he had never finished on the podium before. I pretty much toned down that post, which I’m probably going to do here, somewhat.

But, the circumstances have changed since then and Chris’ situation is in the spotlight. A couple days ago, the New York Times did a piece titled, Anti-Doping Agency Exposed Armstrong, but What About Others? The article goes through a little of the background of the USADA decision, but the meat of the story is pretty much about Chris Horner and his situation.

It isn’t like it hasn’t been in the news before, but when the New York Times makes serious implications, then everyone should take notice. I’m sure that they contacted Chris to get his side of the story, which they didn’t include, so I surmise he didn’t respond. I know that you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but in this day and age of cycling doping scandals, it doesn’t always work that way.

Cyclingnews did a story back in September titled, Is Chris Horner a redacted name in USADA’s Reasoned Decision? They contacted him and asked him pretty much outright if he is the redacted named rider #15 in the USADA report. Chris doesn’t answer the question and cuts the interview short. This isn’t a good sign for the future of Chris. There are forums all over the internet that address this. (Just type “Rider 15” into a Google search.) If someone calls me up and asks me if I’m a redacted name on the USADA report, I’m going to say, Hell No! That wasn’t Chris’ answer. Obviously, it is clear that Trek was up to speed with what was going on, so they failed to “offer” Chris a contract.

This makes me go back and think about all the times that Chris has destroyed me, and the rest of the field, over the last 15 years. I’ve ridden 100’s of races with the guy. Trying to put personal bias aside, he’d been doing it a long time domestically before he finally made the successful leap to Europe.

At the 2003 Redlands Classic, Chris, Tom Danielson and Nathan O’Neill, on the final day, the Sunset Loop, rode away, virtually from the gun and nearly lapped the field on a 6+ mile course. Three Saturn riders killing the whole rest of the field. It was a joke. I eventually just quit the race after trying to help Vaughters and his guys chase for a few laps, only to be losing nearly a minute a lap going full tilt. And we know what eventually happened to Tom and Nathan, eventually turning up positive or eventually having to confess. I have no idea why I would be so naïve to think that Chris wouldn’t be in the same class.

Later on in 2003, during the Tour of Georgia, Chris had the Saturn team setting tempo up a climb. Everyone was climbing hard when Chris pulled over to the side of the road, relieved himself, and casually rode back up to his slot behind his team. I heard that story from a few different guys. It totally destroyed the morale of nearly everyone in the field. Chris won this race overall.

Like I’ve said, more than once, I think Chris Horner is a good guy. I’ve watched him humble himself many times. He rode Cyclocross Nationals two years in a row in Providence. Both years, I had the “pleasure” to watch him hit the ground nearly harder than anytime I’ve ever fallen in a cross race. I obviously didn’t see him again during either of those races. But, he got up and finished both races. Back in the 30’s, but he didn’t quit. He just went about his business. He is really a blue-collar bike racer.

In the New York Times article, there is a quote from Matt DeCanio, saying Chris told him, “‘If everybody’s doing it, it ain’t cheating.’” That might have been the way of the past, but this is the present and we view it different now.

I view it different now. My personal view is if you are deemed to be positive once in your career, then all your previous results are valueless and should be ignored. That is hard for me to do here, because of my history with Chris, but there comes a time when enough is enough. And this is enough. Sorry Chris, your career has been unbelievable. But, not in the incredible definition, but the not able to believe, unlikely to be true, definition.

I kind of respect the guy, taking the big risk and winning the Tour of Spain, knowing the card house was collapsing around him. He could have stayed under the radar for a bit longer and just went about his business. You know the saying, Go Big or go Home. He went big, but in my opinion, it is time for him to just go home.

Chris, Todd Wells and me at Jingle Cross a few years back. Maybe Chris can come by Jingle Cross again, next month, for a last hurrah. Only this time as a spectator.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a banner across the top of the site for the Ruts and Guts weekend, the 2nd weekend of November. I’ve done the races the last couple years and it is a great weekend of races with a super healthy pricelist. The banner is clickable, so if you think you might have the ability to make it, check it out.

I’m heading to the Berryman Epic this morning. I’m really in no real form to race, but I have to restart, again, somewhere. Nothing like a 56 mile, rocky singletrack MTB race for starters. I love the seclusion of riding in the woods for such long periods without seeing a soul. It is refreshing and helps me sort through lost thoughts. There are about 350 riders doing it, so there will definitely be a party afterwards.

The St. Louis UCI cross races are also Saturday and Sunday. If I have any extra energy, I might go there on Sunday, probably to just watch, but will probably throw my cross bike into the van just in case. I am still sore from the cross clinic I did last Sunday in Dallas. I can’t imagine how wasted I’m going to be after Saturday.

I had an all day affair yesterday with my MTB bike. It was pretty much the worst case scenario for everything. My tires sealed up good, but after that, it went downhill. I put on a new chain and my cassette skipped. So I put on a new cassette and that fixed it. My front was rigid for Chequamegon, so I had to put back on a shock fork. My XTR brakes are side mount and I need post mounts. I have a XO brake that is post mount, but when I put in new pads, I can’t get it to work. I’m not a big fan of Avid/Sram disc brakes. I finally just stole the Shimano SLX brake off her new BMC MTB bike. It worked great.

I went riding late in the afternoon and when I put pressure on my cranks, my chain skipped on the big ring. I didn’t realize it was so wasted. I didn’t have a new ring, so I had to change the whole crankset and bottom bracket. So, I did exact what I tell everyone else not to do before a race, change your components. I changed just about all mine. I’m going to ride a hour or so on the course this afternoon, so it should be enough to sort out any potential issues.

There are 2 places on the course where I can get extra tubes, air, etc. I’ve flatted as many as 4 times in this race before. The last two years I haven’t flatted once, knock on wood. Once you put in a tube, you are destined to keep putting in more tubes. The rocks are too sharp and the speed is too high not to keep pitching. I’ve got a lot of sealant in my tires and pretty sturdy tires too, so I hope to make it through the race without incident.

Okay, better go pack up the van. I’m picking up my team-mate, Brian Jensen, in Lawrence on the way. Brian was 12th in Leadville, but this ain’t no Leadville. He needs to get the experience of riding on rocky singletrack. No better way than doing it in competion.

I have a lot of tube and quickfils ready.

Plus a couple more on my bike already. I’ll probably carry another in my pocket.
Like I said, I’ve had a lot of problems with flatting at this event.