Aged almost 42, Chris Horner wins Vuelta d'Espana for biggest cycling win of his career

cyclisimo wrote:

That was a circuit, not a crit.

GenericID wrote:

That's what puzzles me. Horner took time out of Nibali whenever Nibali came off the defensive and attacked.

Had he ridden defensively, Nibali could realistically have taken the lead, but even if they had gone into the crit with Nibali down by 3 seconds Astana could have forced a split in the peloton and won on the last day.

Bad tactics in my opinion.

Hahaha. I already pointed that out, but genericid was too busy talking about how much he knows about bike racing to actually address it.

what a noob.

Renato Canova wrote:

The victory of Horner is something really exceptional, since never there was some athlete over 40 able to win at international level in cycling. It may be like Haile Gebrselassie in running, still one of the best when very much older than his "official" 40 years.

Except it's nothing like Haile because while was at the top for a long time, he was never at THE top. He was always a class below the very top guys.

Now suddenly he's taking it to them?

Horner has always been a shorter stage race specialist with some great one-day ability, but has never had a crazy standout GT finish. He had a 9th and 13th in the TDF, but that's light years away from a podium and even further from a win.

Previous GT finishes:

'05: 33rd,

'06: 61st, 20th

'07: 14th, 36th

'08: --

'09: DNF, DNF

'10: 9th

'11: DNF

'12: 13th

'13: 1st

Granted, this is the Vuelta and not the Giro or Tour, but come on. Nothing compared to Haile.

Horner's win, in a nutshell:

1) no team sent their true A squad, or if they did, they were off peak having put their efforts into the Giro and Tour this year

2). The course was perfect for him- several mountaintop finishes, tons of climbing, no long time trials to lose it all back

3) though he hasn't had GC results in any grand tour before, he's also never been riding for himself. He has always been one of the best climbing domestiques in the peloton.

Perd Hapley wrote:

Horner's win, in a nutshell:

1) no team sent their true A squad, or if they did, they were off peak having put their efforts into the Giro and Tour this year

2). The course was perfect for him- several mountaintop finishes, tons of climbing, no long time trials to lose it all back

3) though he hasn't had GC results in any grand tour before, he's also never been riding for himself. He has always been one of the best climbing domestiques in the peloton.

4) took tons of EPO HGH and steroids and a few other helpful tricks of the trade[/]

Fixed that for you. Open your eyes

I didn't say whether he did or didn't- any cyclist his age is a suspected PED user, but its also worth pointing out that he didn't have to go toe to toe with Contador or Schleck, didn't have a long time trial where a froome or wiggins would have taken 3 minutes out of him, and that he's never really been a GC guy before.

It more likely than not that Horner is doping. Having said that, the numbers Canova is reporting for him are almost certainly incorrect. SRM, Horner's power meter producer, claims that Horner's power is 425 in the final 6 kms in Horner's best performance of the Vuelta (google it and find the Velonews article on this); this is a long ways from the mid-to-high 600'd that Canova is reporting. Second, Horner's VO2 is certainly not 104. Both those numbers, the power numbers reported in the foreign papers, and the VO2 Max, are derived backwards from Horner's climbing a given unit of altitude in a given time--this is not a reliable measure of power or VO2 Max, since there are too many variables in play (rider and bike weight, wind, inaccurate distances, inac timing, inac altitude, drafting, etc). VO2 Max in particular certainly has to be lab tested. It is better to trust the power meter company reporting what it's meter records. Having said all of this, go back and read my first sentence.

come back GenericID, come back precious.

Although you've been proven categorically wrong, it's always entertaining watching you convince yourself you're right

He's never wrong wrote:

come back GenericID, come back precious.

Although you've been proven categorically wrong, it's always entertaining watching you convince yourself you're right

Sorry, I've been a bit busy over the last few days. Now, perhaps you could point out where I've been proven "categorically wrong"?

so that's the angle you're taking. Down boy!

you are hilarious, I'll give you that

So no actual answer then?

Why am I not surprised.