Just another no talent dude who raced pro for 20 years.
20 years of fetching bottlesJust another no talent dude who raced pro for 20 years.
- Aug 30, 2010
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Actually he was a very talented pro. Mostly in the US but he rode pretty well mountain domestique for Cadel Evans. And his Vuelta win was brilliant.
While not my favorite guy, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.
OK, got it, you were just putting the worm on the hook there.
- May 13, 2009
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Tremendously talented. Massive engine. Phenomenal recovery. And that was in the mid-1990s. What a treat to race side by side with him over a few years in the U.S.!
- Jun 15, 2021
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Amazing thing to me is he won the Vuelta at age 42. (deepseek says 41 years and 327 days).
Some think of Roglic as now being over the hill and yet Horner was 7 years older when he won his GT.
Some think of Roglic as now being over the hill and yet Horner was 7 years older when he won his GT.
- Aug 9, 2021
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Even if that would've been what he did (it wasn't) trust me the domestiques really has to be able read the race. A GT winner is nothing without their domestiques.
I am sure there are a few San Diegans who read and remember.... Horner as a junior and very young man had a beat up Firebird and a 3rd hand hammered looking Guerciotti, or something old Italian steel as his first bikes.
He would travel Southern California in search of racing of any kind did multiple rides and races in San Diego for a few years, with very good results.
At his cycling beginnings he had a Steven Seagal looking silly ponytail.. which was genetically cancelled!!
Horner rode all over East county San Diego training on all the most mountainous terrain in the area, raced in Northern Mexico, Los Angeles, California coast..again with success. Horner worked very very hard not to waste time.. Training very hard for a couple of years before going into a more organized system..
Seeing him race and train it was evident that he had some kind of cycling destiny. My only surprises came from shaky European start, returning to American domestic scene, he was good, many others were also, he was always up there but not winning everything. He got a call in @2004 for European team and he never looked back.. Guy had a solid ride for 20 years, all kinds of different squads..
Once famous, and his teammates over the years.. Always going to have detractors..
Guy is a San Diego legend, most of Southern California, you could have have talked to him from 90s until today, easy smile ,handshake, super personable guy , he is friendly with everyone.
There is also some bizarre misplaced concept that Horner was always attached to controversial Armstrong crew, just not the case, Chris was connected with teams well before anything Armstrong. Chris' record is pretty clear decades on the bike, victories here and there but primarily consistently employed as a worker, climbing companion for superior riders within his own teams .
Just guessing, but from his personality, hundreds, if not thousands would describe him as friend or friendly.
Its a new season and I'm ready for Coach Horner lol
Don't do intervals, nobody needs intervals! Then proceeds to prove intervals are unnecessary by having his kid average 100km per day over the past year lol
Ya who could predict big improvements from riding as many or more kms than most pros in a year
Don't do intervals, nobody needs intervals! Then proceeds to prove intervals are unnecessary by having his kid average 100km per day over the past year lol
Ya who could predict big improvements from riding as many or more kms than most pros in a year
Well, he has always been saying you just go out and ride as hard as you feel you can do. This means no specified intervals as such, but of course, you can go hard on a segment. The flip side of the coin, and what I also agree with, is that you do not need to do the ridiculous "zone 2" riding. For pros zone 2 is a hard ride, maybe it does not destroy you but it is still hard. Maybe 75% of FTP. And if you define zone 2 like that it makes sense. But riding at 50% of FTP (what most training tools suggest for amateurs) is completely useless and a waste of time.
If you're talking about Horner....he beat all of Motorola riding w/o team at National Champs. He lived so deeply in Armstrong's head that Ochowicz saw to it that Horner wasn't included in the US Olympic team. Horner was a better talent than Armstrong but was pretty much frozen out of any big American team by that mafioso consortium.
Totally agree. The zone 2 most pros I've met topped out at 65% and they could do it all day. Add some redline intervals on other days and you have some serious metabolic efficiency being built, IMO. It's totally individual, though. Amateurs tend to get fixated with base and may be able to ride for 6 hrs. When they race and the pace goes above 40km/hr they slip off and finish the events remaining hours with their friends.
It was funny as ***, it was then and it still is now, and the men he beat were no saints so I don't really care.
As silly as it looked he wasn't a complete nobody like Froome for example, and had pedigree, he was just ancient.
What I do appreciate about Horner nowadays is that he isn't beholden to anyone, and as a result doesn't seem to hold back on any of his analysis in an attempt to court favour.
As silly as it looked he wasn't a complete nobody like Froome for example, and had pedigree, he was just ancient.
What I do appreciate about Horner nowadays is that he isn't beholden to anyone, and as a result doesn't seem to hold back on any of his analysis in an attempt to court favour.
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- Mar 17, 2022
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Horners take on Vermeersch being a knucklehead in Omloop is kinda stupid. If you look at the next UAE rider who finished, its Politt. Not really known as a sprinter. The only good that not working and getting caught would have done were to possibly carry Visma, which are sort of Horners darlings, to victory. Also its not a law of nature that VDP must win against Vermeersch so taking your chances was actually the right decision. I would imagine, if Vermeersch didn't cooperate he and van Dike would have been dropped much earlier.
Horner's take was pretty logical. UAE had a plan, Politt and Wellens pulling back a break that included a teammate was never discussed.
There was an internationally recognized phenomenon.. If you are in a break that includes Pogacar or MVP, never ever pull through, don't work the calories they trick you into using will on add to the deficit when they switch gears into super human mode.
As they look over to you as the group rotation happens it's a false sense as you are being sized up for consumption.
I get your point about taking a shot, who wouldn't but part of the process can't be doing any work, zero in getting a gap bigger and bigger for cycling superstars like Van der Poel, don't give him anything, he doesn't need it, you do, don't fool yourself.
If you checked MVP's resume, he just had a season of destroying people, winning races and championship. Check the time frame of his feeding.. He can go @45 minutes to a bit over an hour at full throttle... the guy doesn't cancel races because of bad weather and conditions, he seeks them out.
Doing anything, absolutely anything to help him instead of Politt or Wellens was a tactical mistake, looks minor after Tim tumbled and snapped a clavicle, but still, don't do it,
never get fooled by a pretty smile and good attitude.. The guy is a killer.
The best chance of beating MVP because he makes a mistake, gets caught in traffic, someone falls into or in front of him.. If you isolate yourself into a small group that he is part of, his job is easier, if you give him significant breathing room were he doesn't need to worry about chasers... only you a couple other guys, you are being set up. The guy wins because he does all things well, not perfect, but really really well. It was almost like slow motion, it took him a millisecond to push for the gap after crash..
He felt opportunity and urgency that others didn't
PS Horner is really at a disadvantage to others, he does mostly post race analysis and he doesn't pay for video rights so he works 5 times as hard using still video capture to describe actions.. Show still, show another describes what happened in all the time in between. Might be easier to cheat a little..
What statistical predictors would someone use to think that Van der Poel wouldn't keep winning after he did so almost effortlessly all winter.
His physical form looked nothing short of fantastic.
All data used for predictions had him winning, all the gambling sites almost universally had him as odds on favorite. The guy put on a masterclass.
I don’t think you’re giving riders, in this case Vermeersh, credit for having at least the intelligence or awareness that 95% of posters here have. Which is that MVDP will demolish anyone in that group still with him on the final 2 climbs. So doing the “by the book” strategy of just sitting on the wheel of a superior rider, would result in either MVDP dropping them sooner (he might as well if just towing them) or MVDP sticking around till the Muur, but going slower than they did with Vermeersh working. In which case the chasers and peloton will be that much closer for the final runin, jeopardizing the podium spot. Horner always hues to what a teammate is supposed to do in traditional strategy. We’ve learned the past several years that traditional strategy goes out the window if competing against MVDP or Pogacar.
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