2013 Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain

Nerged for reminding me... I sooo wanted him to win that stage.

Was pretty funny on the hilights last night - gary what'shisname asking Jens Voigt about a 42 year old winning a grand tour in the post-Armstrong era. Top lolz.

Horner also c. 4kg lighter than Froome or Wiggins.

ftfy

Old man Chris Horner takes Vuelta a España victory... incredible. The predicament here being, that pro cycling needs credible winners, and in that respect, all things considered, it doesn't matter whether or not Horner is using performance enhancing drugs, blood transfusions or whatever. I want to believe that he is clean. And I would like to emphasise that I have no evidence whatsoever to suggest that he isn't, but that doesn't alter the stigma of the Armstrong era and the reputation of pro cycling in general.

Over the the past three weeks we've watched some of the most incredible cycling ever, and frankly I have enjoyed every minute of it. Endless epic duels between the GC contenders, that, from a spectators point of view, surpass anything we've seen for years including Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. I only hope it was a fair competition.

Needless to say it is grossly unfair to accuse Horner of any wrong doing without the slightest bit of evidence, so I won't, and I have no interest in doing so. Cheapau to Horner, a "water carrier" throughout most of his career who finally gets his day and the opportunity to let his talent unfold. Cheapau to Horner, I salute him in his finest hour. However, cycling needs credible winners, and whether or not Horner's triumph constitute a creditable victory, is and will forever remain debatable.

^ seconded!

If there is suspicion about Horner, it is caused by his association with Armstrong. Of course, comments like these do not help:

Look, I'm certainly old enough and wise enough to understand the magnitude of the situation, but in the end he's still getting prosecuted with no positive test. A lot of guys say they saw him and a lot say he did this and he did that, but I look at it and say: 'USADA, WADA, UCI, they're saying that the tests are worthless.' So do you take all the tests, 500, 1000, I don't know the number I've done in my own career and you basically say, that you took them for no reason?"

"And again I understand and I'm clear on how much information is out there on what Lance is said to have done but I'm also clear on the fact that he's passed all of his tests. Are you supposed to go back and erase those memories? I remember the 2005 Tour de France and Lance was the best guy there and he past all the tests and won the Tour. I'm not going to debate if he won, he was there, he won and passed the tests."

for me, you won the race (if) you passed the test. Lance won seven Tours de France and that's what I saw and the moments I enjoyed and that the way it's going to stay."

"

There's no doubt about it. He's certainly been victimized because he's the most important cyclist in the world today. Certainly I believe they looked at him and evidently they weren't interested in the other 15 or 20 riders who were interviewed because those guys are retired or kept some of their results so they were going after Lance and victimizing Lance."

Source Cycling News 14 December 2012. Before Armstrong "confessed" but after the evidence was laid out by USADA.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/exclusive-interview-chris-horner-on-his-career-armstrong-and-pro-cycling

That doesn't help. I have never actually read those comments till now... spin doctor's day off?

Credibility is the key here, as Lynch points out. It was a good GT, there was lots of amazing racing, but at the end of the day an unheralded 41 year old beat some of the finest GT riders and climbers a decade younger than him. Who may well have been doping.

It's Roy-of-the-Rovers, fairytale stuff. It's a brilliant story but for me it actually serves to set the sport backwards further. He's an American rider from the dirtiest generation of American riders. A generation spearheaded by Lance that systematically doped their way to utter domination of the sport for nearly a decade. He rode with Lance lest we forget.

Happy to hope he is clean, but for an Amercian of his age with his background to come over and win the Vuelta in the wake of the Armstrong scandal is very difficult to swallow.

If there is suspicion about Horner, it is caused by...

...well... this?

Ouch.

oh dear

It's not ideal really is it.

You had one job...

Would Horner have been tested as a matter of course as race leader after the Angliru and the final stage or not?

He would have been regularly tested throughout the race. Shit the bed that is bad

Let's hypodermically say he was in the wrong hotel, for whatever reason. The testers turn up and they wait for an hour, don't they? Is there any plausible reason that the team couldn't have got him from one Madrid city centre hotel to another pretty damn swiftly?

hmmm... it should be really easy to verify? fishy...

^^ Hahahahahaha

And yes, you would have thought that someone would have phoned the team up and they'd get his arse to the right place...

he notified them about a hotel change in the whereabaouts system

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/15476/RadioShack-Leopard-team-insists-Horner-had-updated-ADAMS-system-with-change-of-hotel.aspx

The shame of it is mud sticks, and he's just further damaged the credibility of his win.

Is there a plausible scenario that would lead to a negative post-race test, but a positive surprise repeat test 24 hours later? Say, use of saline to dilute blood immediately after the race to 'correct' values that would return to 'abnormal' after a few hours?

Awesome.

"Is there a plausible scenario that would lead to a negative post-race test, but a positive surprise repeat test 24 hours later? Say, use of saline to dilute blood immediately after the race to 'correct' values that would return to 'abnormal' after a few hours?"

Yes... saline would do exactly that and was commonly used in the doping heydays.

...don't think riders are given the opportunity to do that these days, but that's pure speculation on my part.

If he's cheating he's going about it in a very odd way;

http://www.srm.de/news/road-cycling/vuelta-a-espana-stage-18/

I don't think 424 watts for 20 minutes is that incredible. It's GT winning form for sure, but both Froome and Wiggins put out similar values.

Interesting take on the analysis provided by Deli Sport

http://bikerackheads.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/is-chris-horner-doping-more-pseudo.html