When is the smackdown on Chris Horner?

[IzzyStradlin]

If Horner refilled yesterday how did he get his blood bag from the US to Spain? In his carry on luggage? He has been in the US for many months.

If he is transfusing a more likely pattern would be a right after Utah when any spike in Hct can be written off to response to altitude.

Will be interesting to see how he performs in the 3rd week

It's not like he would know anyone with experience transporting blood across borders...

 

[Scott SoCal]

Stage winners are automatically tested, aren't they? I think that used to be the protocol.

No wonder he took it easy on the TT today. After the blood bags he took on the rest day he couldn't afford to light up the dope test like a Christmas Tree.

Better to keep the powder dry.

 

[Race Radio]

Witnesses said he weighed "135 lbs, tops" and looked really fit

He is certainly skinny, very skinny.

 

[masking_agent]

He is certainly skinny, very skinny.

'

maybe he's in a "clenbute" state .. heh heh

 

[blackcat]

since chris has lost the weight, his timetrialling has really deteriorated. i think his climbing went crazy with Busche at California 2 or 3 years ago, when he had lost about 6 or 7 kgs by the looks. His timetrialling was average US domestic pro.

Horners best tt'ing effort, rule of thumb, is about a podium at US Nats when Levi and Zabriskie were riding. Maybe inferior to Tom Zirbel, but better than everyone else.

 

[thehog]

since chris has lost the weight, his timetrialling has really deteriorated. i think his climbing went crazy with Busche at California 2 or 3 years ago, when he had lost about 6 or 7 kgs by the looks. His timetrialling was average US domestic pro.

Horners best tt'ing effort, rule of thumb, is about a podium at US Nats when Levi and Zabriskie were riding. Maybe inferior to Tom Zirbel, but better than everyone else.

Huh?

Pasco Vale mate.

Christopher Horner of Team RadioShack came from behind to win the closing time trial and overall title in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. The American blasted his way over the 22km time trial course to beat Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) by eight seconds on the stage, and by seven seconds on the overall. Maxime Monfort of HTC-Columbia was third on the stage, 13 seconds down.

 

[blackcat]

Huh?

Pasco Vale mate.

err, that was 2010.
Hog, should have checked out what i wrote.

 

[Scott SoCal]

err, that was 2010.
Hog, should have checked out what i wrote.

That's assuming he can comprehend something running contrary to his set-in-stone narrative.

Good luck with that.

 

[skidmark]

Because Ryder doesn't have any shady teams in his history.

Yeesh, that's the most frustrating line for me to hear as a sole argument for someone's possible doping. Who the hell hasn't had any shady teams in their history? Peter Stetina? Someone who's never had a team? I dunno, there don't seem to be many options, especially if you're one of the (at least vocal) many here who think no team is clean.

 

[Ferminal]

Well he already climbed like a beast on Arrate that year, but in any case, "Pasco Vale" TTs are hardly indicative of generic TTing ability...

 

[Alphabet]

Today's result in the ITT does not take away the smashing/extraterrestrial/insane/out righteous result he got two days ago- Horner himself has acknowledged he has not trained a lot on his TT skills and knew in advance it wasn't going to be on his favor...

Yet , we may get another out of the saddle display of his manhood, in the coming MTF stages and let hell breaks loose once more...

Spot on, one 'normal' performance doesn't take the previous instances of 'not normal' performances away or cancel them out. 6w/kg is impressive for anybody, let alone a 41 year old who has only once top-10'd in a Grand Tour before.

Before people write him off as clean, let's wait until the Vuelta is over. I'm sure there'll be at least one more bizarre attack.

 

[Wallace and Gromit]

Before people write him off as clean...

Odd choice of words. I thought riders would be written off when the adverse aspect of their performance is confirmed, not the favourable!

 

[Scott SoCal]

Well he already climbed like a beast on Arrate that year, but in any case, "Pasco Vale" TTs are hardly indicative of generic TTing ability...

He's always been what I would consider a competent time trialist. Solid even.

I consider his TT in this Vuelta as right in line with what he's always (usually) been able to produce. Let' not forget, on the big stage, he's usually been riding in the service of others.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

a 41 year old who has only once top-10'd in a Grand Tour before.

That was before the world recognized the magical properties of beet root juice.

 

[MacRoadie]

That was before the world recognized the magical properties of beet root juice.

I agree...

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

That was before the world recognized the magical properties of beet root juice.

Almost correct... now we´ll see 40 yr olds en masse ruling the GT´s. Where you failed is, that beet root juice doesn´t work on highly trained young athletes.

@ all; I don´t understand the all-of-a-sudden-clearing of Horner by some posters b/c he didn´t smashed the ITT like predicted by Hog.
Still, Horner lost only one minute on some GT-rivals, but also gained one minute or more time on other GT-rivals like Moreno or Capecchi for example.
Don´t forget the grandpa is still pretty much in contention for a GT-Win. Urgh!

 

[therhodeo]

or more time on other GT-rivals like Moreno or Capecchi for example.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

hmm... those cyclists are 15th and 10th in CG. And have been up there before (around T-20 in GT´s). At young ages!!
At best Horner should compete there, for a T-20. And even that is too high for a grandpa who only finished once that high at age 38 (out of nowhere, BTW) with an obscure too-clean-zero on the UCI-List.

 

[red_flanders]

hmm... those cyclists are 15th and 10th in CG. And have been up there before (around T-20 in GT´s). At young ages!!
At best Horner should compete there, for a T-20. And even that is too high for a grandpa who only finished once that high at age 38 (out of nowhere, BTW) with an obscure too-clean-zero on the UCI-List.

So now his score on the BP indicating he was likely clean at the time of the testing is evidence he is dirty?

Come on. I can certainly see where people think Horner is doped, but let's at least bring some logic to the discussion. I get it if people think he's dirty, but his clean passport ain't part of the evidence.

I would be surprised if he or anyone at the top are totally clean. But his performance in this race hasn't been over the top. Unlikely and surprising, but nothing alien...yet.

 

[red_flanders]

Just saw this page that acoggan posted in the power thread: http://www.srm.de/news/road-cycling/vuelta-a-espana-stage-10/


Entire stage:

Attack on Hazallanas (however that's defined, haven't looked closely yet):

Go to the post itself for enlarged versions of the data. At least the guy is posting what appears to be legit data? No? We don't know his exact weight, which is always the issue with SRM data used as proof of anything, but hey, at least he doesn't think we're too stupid to understand what we're looking at.

 

[Race Radio]

It is clear Chris' improvement comes from being more areo

 

[Scott SoCal]

It is clear Chris' improvement comes from being more areo

That beats the crap out of that ridiculous pony tail/comb-over mullet he used to sport.

He looks a little Duck Dynasty here.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

So now his score on the BP indicating he was likely clean at the time of the testing is evidence he is dirty?

Come on. I can certainly see where people think Horner is doped, but let's at least bring some logic to the discussion. I get it if people think he's dirty, but his clean passport ain't part of the evidence.

I would be surprised if he or anyone at the top are totally clean. But his performance in this race hasn't been over the top. Unlikely and surprising, but nothing alien...yet.

Here is the logic; big time manipulation a la Armstrong. Read "From Lance to Landis" where Walsh describes how LA samples were as clean as a newborn baby. Those where so clean that they (testers) even missed the cancer markers. It seems Horner learned a lot from his clone...

Of course Horner was not likely clean (not even close) when he was finishing T-10 at age 38, something he never did before when the human body is at it´s peak (around age 28).

Otherwise i agree with your post, but if Froome is alien performance, then Horner is alien/predator combi performance. Wayyy over the top...

 

[krismtb]

Chris was out of the saddle for almost 6km non-stop. How is this possible??? He has never done anything like this in his career and now does it at 40? I see he seems to be in the best physical shape I have seen him but how did he do that so quickly? So many questions, the ITT will answer it for me. If its juice we will see. He is not a good ITT guy but thats where juice makes a huge difference

I'm not sure why you are commenting on Horner since it is obvious by your remark you've never watched him race uphill. THE MAN IS ALWAYS STANDING. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. ALWAYS.

Go look at some video and come back when you are informed. I don't know how he does it either, I can barely stand for 30 seconds with my fat *** but for some reason Horner is just able to stand for unlimited amounts of time.

Everyone who's surprised by this standing while climbing for miles is just uninformed and unfamiliar with Horner. Nothing to see here folks, that's just how he climbs.

Wow, what fricken caves do you live in? Oh yeah, the clinic.

 

[bangnz]

Will be interesting to see what he does the next couple of stages..