Read Part One of this interview here.

Chris Horner at the US Olympic Trials.
Photo by Janna Trevisanut.
Ah, that was the work of a lot of guys. My agent, Michael Rutherford, was calling them a lot. Also, Scott Montgomery, from Scott USA, ran into me at the San Francisco Grand Prix this year. We had a talk, and he was really motivated to put in a good word for me to get onto the team too. And I know Mauro Gianetti from the La Francaise des Jeux days too, but I don’t know if that helped or hurt. (Laughs) I mean, of course, he’d know my personality, and he’d know I’m a pretty good guy, but, in terms of getting results, he wouldn’t have seen a lot of that with me at Francaise de Jeux, so I don’t know if that actually helped or hurt the whole situation. So, those were three angles right there.

Also, Prodir, which is a secondary sponsor with Saunier Duval, saw me racing at the New York race. So they were fighting for me. Also, my teammate from Webcor, Imanol [Ayestaran], is really good friends with the Spanish director. So he was calling on my behalf! (Laughs) It was a lot of coming together.

It was weird. Last year I had this feeling that I’d be riding for ONCE. Of course, nothing came of that - I ended up riding for Webcor. But a year later, I’m riding with Saunier Duval now, which, of course, is not ONCE, but the colors are the same! (We both laugh) It must have been a premonition - I got the names mixed up, but the colors are the same.

Yeah, it was funny - of course, after San Francisco, I was like, "All right, the form is there! It’s not at its absolute best, but it’s pretty good. I’ve got three more weeks to sharpen it up." So, I went back to Trent Klasna’s place and did some more hard training at his house. You know, he was super.

He’s not training anymore, so I was going out training by myself, but he was getting up in the morning with me, and doing breakfast together. A couple times, he motor-paced me, which was ideal, because before the world Championships, the only race I had done in seven weeks was San Francisco. And if you look at the results from Worlds, all of those guys just came from the Vuelta. I don’t think that there was one guy in that break, besides me, that didn’t come from the Vuelta - and I hadn’t raced in thee weeks, and had only done one race in seven weeks.

That was a pretty big block of no racing, and I think Klasna was a big, big help, if not the difference, in terms of getting that result I got versus not getting it. Because he had me out motor pacing twice the last week before I went, and one of those days, we did 85 miles behind the motor. And we just did it FULL-GAS! By the time I got done behind the motor, I could barely hold my arms up (we both laugh). So, that was a HELLL day, let me tell you, but it was amazing to have that kind of help. You really need a good friend to put up with . . . I mean, I’d been at his house for TWO MONTHS! I was staying at his house, he was motor pacing me and taking care of me and everything. So, that’s a good friend.

Well, so far - Mallorca, Ruta del Sol, Tirreno-Adriatico, and some other one day races in there that I’m not really familiar with yet, because I’m not really familiar with the one day races in Spain. After Tirreno-Adriatico, they have me going up to do Flanders. And they also want me to do Paris-Roubaix, which I wasn’t too keyed up on, but if the form’s good, I’ll go do it. It’s just a really dangerous race. You better be 100% motivated for that race, otherwise there’s no reason to be there.

I kind of put that race down with going out and riding your motocross bike. You know, I like to do it, and sometimes I do, but I try to avoid it (laughs).

Yeah, and don’t get me wrong - I would love to do Paris-Roubaix, but I’m not in a situation where I can break something and can afford to miss a whole season.

Oh yeah - I’d love to do Flanders! Let me tell you, though - there’s a huge difference between Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. They’re not even close to the same. In one, the cobbles are used every day by the cars, and kept up, and stuff like that. The other one - it’s completely different . . .

Yeah, for the bikes (laughs) - that’s it. I’m telling you - I cannot explain the differences to you. It just wouldn’t do it justice. The best I could do would be to describe it like this - they plowed a dirt road, flew over it with a helicopter, and then just dropped a bunch of rocks out of the helicopter! (we both crack up) That’s Paris-Roubaix. It’s that bad - it’s ridiculous.

The only day you’re going to get a good day, in terms of what would benefit the riders the most, is that it would have had to have rained two days before. Because if it rained any later than that, it’s going to be muddy and slippery, and if it’s been drier for longer than that, then it’s going to be dusty, and you’re not going to be able to see.

Yeah, I’ve seen it both ways - either everybody is caked with dust or mud - but they always have that same look on their faces - it says, "Where the hell am I!" (Both of us cracking up)

Yeah - exactly! And I never quite understood that. I haven’t ever done Roubaix, but I was scheduled to do it once, I trained on the course, and they pulled me out, luckily. But later in the year, I had done a race called Trophee Lebreau, or something, which was on the West coast of France, and that race was all done on double track dirt roads, not cobbles. You couldn’t see anything! The cars would be kicking up so much dust, you couldn’t see anything. I mean, I don’t know which you would prefer, to tell you the truth (we both laugh).

Exactly.

Um, they haven’t exactly sent me any information on when training camp is, but I’m assuming it’s going to be on the 10^th [of January], give or take five days. It’s a good guess, because I’ve got three years of experience on when European teams take you over, but it’s just a guess at this point. They haven’t really told me when training camp is.

In Spain somewhere.

No, I haven’t decided yet. I haven’t picked out a city, or anything.

Chris at the NY City Cycling Championships, 2003.
Photo by Scott Schaffrick.
No, there’s no money for that. The contract, money-wise, really isn’t that good, so there’s just no money to have two houses, two cars, and, you know, two of everything.

If I go over by myself, it’s more like - rent a room from a family, share an apartment with someone, or just get a one bedroom apartment by myself. But, if you go over with your family you need a house. If I’m by myself, I need a scooter and a bike. If I’m going over with my family - now I need a car. It’s pretty hard. You really need to be making good money to bring the whole family over.

Having two home bases is a minimum of $20,000 more, probably $40,000! So, now you’ve got to fly everyone over, which is going to be $5,000 more in airline fares. You got $5,000 in flights. You got $5,000 in a car - that’s not even a good car - that’s just decent. You’ve got to insure the car. You’re going to have to have a house, which is easily $10,000 or $15,000 extra. So there’s at least an extra $20,000 right there, and we haven’t even started talking about the extra toys, the schools, and all that kind of stuff.

I’m just looking forward to doing the big races again. I enjoyed being at Lombardy so much! The whole time I was there, even when it was so fast, I was like, "This is cool!" It was just cool to be there.

Everyone thinks I left before. I didn’t leave Europe though. I was racing for Mercury, and Mercury was going to be racing over there. I did leave to go to a US team, but I didn’t actually leave Europe. I just wanted to get a mixture of being in the States a little bit more, racing with US guys, and racing in Europe. It wasn’t like I said, "Oh, I’ve had enough - I’m going home."

That really wasn’t what happened. What happened was that I had enough of being on a French team (laughs). I thought - "Let’s find an American team, spend a little bit of time in the States, and still race over in Europe." And, of course, that year we did the trip to Langkawi - we did four more trips to Europe, and stuff, and the next year the team went D1, so we were going to be over there a lot.

Next thing you know, I didn’t have anything. I tried to get over there when the team fell through, because I did have some results when I was over there. I was 3rd in the time trial at Criterium International, 11^th on the mountain top finish, and 7^th or 8^th overall, so I thought that would get me on a team, but it didn’t. I’m sure all the directors felt, "Well, once he left, he left," you know?

So I had to take a job with Prime Alliance.

Oh, it turned out fantastic! It’s really funny, y’know, because I’m on five teams in five years now, but all of them have been good experiences, with the exception of Mercury, but Mercury was a great experience in terms of the riders. I really enjoyed the riders. It was just a bad experience in terms of the stress level and the directors. But, I mean, the riders were fantastic, the staff was fantastic, the races were good - it was just the management - because the checks weren’t coming on time, and then they stopped coming at all.

No, I was here in the States, luckily.

Chris at the World Championships Time Trial, Zolder 2002. Photo by Jeff Tse.

Yeah, I will be coming back to the States - absolutely - that’s one of the original reasons I was put on the team. To go back - we’d agreed upon a contract a few weeks before the Worlds, and then we were just going to go ahead and sign it at Worlds. So, I think, originally, when they signed me it was something like, "Well, we need a boy to do the American races, so let’s get Chris Horner." (We both laugh)

(Still laughing) Yeah, well, I think that’s what they were kind of thinking. They were thinking, "Yeah, we’ll put him on, and we won’t pay him much, and he’ll be happy to be on," and all that kind of stuff. And hopefully I changed all that, which I think I did, at those races [last fall]. So, we went to Worlds, and that changed - but originally they brought me on for Georgia, San Francisco, Philly, and New York. Yeah, I’ll be back in the States three or four times.

Yeah, and it was a great experience, being over there with the team for three weeks, because, first off, I found that I really liked the directors. And, of course, I always like Mauro [Gianetti], who’s the manager. But I got to meet some of the riders too, so next year I’m not like the "new new" guy.

Yeah, right - they were World Cup races, and we did Milan Turin too, which is a really big race in its own right. Me and four riders got off on a climb and dropped everyone. I got off just as we were dropping into a descent - and then the Saeco rider caught me about 2k from the line. Then we worked together, and we got caught about 300 meters from the line!

So, you know, I had a 5^th or 6^th in the bag, but we got caught, which was disappointing. For me, it was just a great experience to be back in those races, and know that there is where I want to be. So, all this winter, I’ve been, like, "Get me over there! Get me over there! Get me over there!" You know?

Yeah, exactly, and, also, for this spring - if it’s the beginning of the year - you’re not really riding that fantastic so early. Now the team has seen that I can ride at that level [last fall], so they won’t be so freaked out.

Well - first thing - like at Lombardy - it was just a more difficult race to read because there were no teams left. I mean, if you look at the break, there was one team having two riders, three at the most, but that was, you know - if I recall correctly, I only remember seeing a couple teams with two riders each. So, it was kind of difficult to read - especially for me, because I wasn’t really familiar with the riders and the jerseys by sight. I wasn’t really familiar with them just by looking at them like I am in the States.

But, you know, normally the tactics in Europe are pretty simple. You’ve got nine and ten man teams, so you can afford to lose a lot of guys. The break goes off early - the tempo is pretty easy - then it gets really hard - and then after they catch the break, right toward the end, the big boys hit it and fight it out amongst themselves.

In the States there are a lot more tactics involved, because the racing is shorter - you can’t get the time gaps so much - and also, you can’t afford to lose five guys! But if you have a ten man team, you can afford to lose five guys. You’ve still got a team left - five fresh guys!

But in the States, if you lose five guys, you only have two guys left. Who’s going to do the work for you? You can’t chase with just one guy. And the difference is, in the States, and it does happen - sometimes you get two teams working together, but it’s pretty rare - usually it’s more like, "Nope, Mercury missed it - they do the work. Nope, Saturn missed it, they do the work. Nope, Prime Alliance missed it, they do the work. Nope, Webcor does the work!" Y’know? (laughs)

Literally, Webcor was the first team I have been on in the States, that when we got on the front we actually had some help from other teams. And that wasn’t all the time - that was only once in a while.

Oh, I won’t be marked at all! (laughs) I mean, nobody knows me! I even heard ‘em at Lombardy, asking - I heard them talking to my teammate behind me - "Who’s this guy?"

Of course, probably anyone who speaks English or French over there is probably pretty familiar with me. It’s all the Italians and the Spanish guys who don’t have a clue as to who I am.

Ah, you know, I was working on it there for a little while - it was coming along pretty well - but then, you know, the kids get out of school, and holiday stuff, with Thanksgiving and all of that - I’ve really been off the boat. It’ll come along. I haven’t really had many problems with what I have learned, so it’s coming along.

Well, thanks, I appreciate it. Everyone keeps asking me - are you going to be able to make it this year? People always ask, "Well, why didn’t he make it before?" And I’ve always said - it’s not the racing - it really wasn’t. It wasn’t the team - La Francaise des Jeux took care of me as professionally as a team can. It was more just getting used to the lifestyle.

You know, when I got back from Lombardy, everyone said, "All right, you did it - you must have adapted." And I said, "Well, I was only there for a month!" - know what I mean? It’s after a month that you still have to be performing.

I think now I’m going over there older and with more experience of what bad days are going to be like and then with the knowledge that there are good days around the corner. And also, I know I only have a few years left of racing over there, so I hope between all that I’m able to keep it together.

I hope so! (laughs)

Yeah, thanks - ciao!

Horner and Fast Freddie at the US PRO startline, 2004. Photo courtesy PRO.