After competing seven times in the Tour de France over the past 10 years, finishing eighth in 2010 and 17th last year when he rode for Lampre-Merida, Chris Horner is at home in America this July as the Grand Bouclé winds toward its eventual finish in Paris on Sunday.
The winner of the 2013 Vuelta a Espaňa is competing this week with his Airgas-Safeway Continental team at the Cascade Cycling Classic, a national-level race in his hometown of Bend, Oregon, where Horner has spent the past five weeks preparing for the upcoming Tour of Utah in early August.
Horner's distance from the Tour de France hasn't stopped him from following the race, however, and he insists that despite Team Sky's dominating performance and Chris Froome's seemingly insurmountable overall lead, the race's wildest days may still lie ahead in what has been a notoriously raucous edition so far.
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“The person who is going to make the racing exciting of course is Alberto,” Horner said, referring to Tinkoff-Saxo team leader and two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.
“That's why it was bad for the fans to see him crash on the descent today, which caused him to lose more time and use more energy. After the crash he'll have to assess his form tomorrow and the next day. He was for sure the one who was going to throw caution to the wind. Alberto doesn't care if he finishes fifth. It doesn't even dawn on him.”
Contador lost another 2:17 to Froome on Wednesday and is currently in fifth place, 6:40 behind. Runner-up Nairo Quintana is 3:10 down, while his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde is another 59 seconds in arrears. Geraint Thomas, Froome's stalwart lieutenant in the mountains so far, is fourth overall, 6:34 behind his team leader.
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