The Cycliste Moderne, June 17, 2005

Horner Finally Wins in Europe

Chris Horner of Saunier Duval-Prodir won his first ever race in Europe on Thursday, winning a stage of the Tour de Suisse. Horner moved to Saunier Duval from American domestic team Webcor Builders last fall and competed in a few races after the world championships for the Spanish-Swiss team.

I have never been a big fan of Chris Horner. I have always thought that he talks too much and whines too much. When he failed to win races in the US, it has invariably been someone else’s fault. Horner did not accomplish much in his first foray in Europe with Francaise de Jeux in the late 1990’s. His next attempt at racing in Europe was with Mercury’s aborted attempt to get into the Tour de France with the ill-fated affiliation with Viatel. Horner has been the dominant domestic pro for about five years, however.

On Thursday, he managed to ride away from the group over the last climb and showed strong tactical awareness by recognizing that most of the team leaders were isolated on the last climb. He trailed the GC lead by more than three minutes; a late attack could probably lead to a win. Sure enough, when he attacked, he got a gap and was not chased down. He, of course, was critical of the riders he attacked with, but with Chris Horner if you cannot whine in victory, when can you whine?

Ullrich Part Un

Jan Ullrich lost his leadership of the Tour de Suisse today when he could not respond to the attack of Michael Rogers of Quick.Step and lost more than thirty seconds to the Australian. Rogers is emerging as a strong GC rider and may be the best ever out of Australia. However, he has not historically instilled fear on climbs but rather has been a rider who can remain close on the climbs and have excellent time trials. While Ullrich may merely be testing his form and not trying to overextend himself, his loss of the race leader’s jersey should concern T-Mobile.

Ullrich Part Deux

T-Mobile has announced that Erik Zabel is not on the team’s short list for the Tour de France. It is clear that the team will be coming to the Tour with all eyes set on beating Lance Armstrong. Zabel has not won a stage of the Tour since 2002 (though he won 12 before that) and over the last several years has had little support from the team in trying to recapture the green jersey, which he has won six times. T-Mobile will be bringing a strong team with three riders that have been on the podium in Paris (Ullrich, Vinokourov, Kloden). Clearly the team is betting everything on winning the Tour, however, given the team’s past track record and poor performances this Spring (except for Vinokourov who seems to perform well even under the poor management of the team), I would not be betting on T-Mobile to be the team to win the Tour.

T-Mobile Alumni

Based upon current indications, it appears that multiple T-Mobile alumni will line up at the Tour de France with excellent chances to exceed the performances of current T-Mobile leaders based upon spring performances. With the exception of Vinokourov, the following T-Mobile alumni have had far and away better GC results this year than anyone on the current team: Santiago Botero, Phonak; Bobby Julich, CSC; Paolo Savoldelli, Discovery Channel; and Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto. Even Jan Ullrich’s best performance in the last few years at the Tour de France came while he was riding for Bianchi and not T-Mobile. T-Mobile is no longer the German superteam of 1995 and 1996 built around a core of young riders from the former East Germany that dominate all types of races under all types of conditions.

ProTour Team Time Trial

As part of the ProTour this year, the UCI has added a competitive team time trial as a one day event. This new event will be contested on Sunday in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The 20 ProTour teams will line up with a few other continental professional teams and will contest the 49km course in six man teams. There has been a lot of criticism of the return of the team time trial to the Tour de France. Clearly a bad team time trial can cost a rider his shot at the overall title.

The team time trial is an event which shows how well the team works together. Teams like CSC, Discovery, Banesto/Illes Balears, Once/Liberty Seguros and Credit Agricole have historically been well managed and well disciplined and have had success in the event. The rest of the French teams and most of the Italian teams have shown difficulty in the event. The inclusion of a team time trial as a separate event and not just as part of a stage race gives the ProTour teams an opportunity to work on this discipline. It should result in a better team time trial at the Tour de France.