Tour de France rider Chris Horner coming to BC Superweek

~ Best rider in a race with a history that includes Lance Armstrong

This time last year Chris Horner was preparing for the Tour de France, but this summer the Oregon native is preparing instead to come north and race at BC Superweek.

Horner, who finished 15th at last year’s Tour de France – and more importantly in the team-first world of professional cycling, helped fellow Predictor-Lotto rider Cadel Evans finish second – becomes arguably the best cyclist in BC Superweek’ s impressive history, joining a list that includes Lance Armstrong, who is a bigger name now, but wasn’t as far along in his career when he won the Tour de Gastown in 1991.

“Good crowds, good prize money and just a really well put on event,” Horner replied when asked what he knew about BC Superweek. “Most important to me is organizers are putting on a good event with good racers and a hard race, and the good crowds are icing on the cake. It meets all the criteria for me to stay sharp, get in some really good racing, and get ready for the Olympics if I’m not riding in the Tour de France.”

Horner’s original plan was not just to ride the Tour de France, but be part of the team that dominated it. After last season, he switched teams and signed with the ASTANA Cycling, which withdrew from last year’s Tour de France amid a doping controversy, then rebuilt itself with a strict testing policy before hiring legendary Belgian manager Johan Bruyneel, who was instrumental in Armstrong’s seven Tour de France wins.

Bruyneel quickly put together a team expected to dominated cycling, including last year’s Toru de France winner Alberto Contador, American Levi Leipheimer, who was third last year, and Horner. Despite the sweeping changes for the better, the team was left out of the Tour de France. They were also banned from the Giro D’Italia, but after a surprising late invitation – and despite almost no time to plan – Contador won the prestigious race.

With no such reprieve expected for the Tour de France, Horner has turned his attention to the domestic racing scene he once dominated, winning three straight USA Cycling National Racing Calendar Championships from 2002 to 2004 before going overseas.

The Tour de France’s loss is BC Superweek’s gain.

“The team is getting the shaft, but politics are what they are and that’s just something you have to live with,” says Horner. “Just race hard and win everything else and come back next year and win that. Whoever wins this year will just have to live with the ‘what if Astana showed up.’ We planned on doing the Giro and just dominating and winning it, and then doing the Tour de France and dominating and winning, and we plan on doing the Tour de Spain and dominating and winning. That’s what this team is made to do.”

Horner still hopes to be named to the US Olympic team, and plans to race in Spain at the third of cycling’s three big Grand Prix races. But first he’s headed home for the Cascade Classic in his hometown of Bend, Oregon. The commitment means he’ll miss the first event in BC Superweek, the three-day, three-event, $25,000 Tour de Delta. From July 11 to 13. But Horner joins Superweek for the annual crowds of 25,000-plus at the BC Cancer Foundation Tour de Gastown July 16, the fast-growing Giro di Burnaby on Juy 17, and the history of the scenic Tour de White Rock from July 18 to 20.

He’ll have his work cut out for him at Canada’s biggest 10 days of cycling, featuring eight races, $70,000 in prize money, and a field filled with past, present and future Olympians as well as top professionals from all over North America.

Competition will be stiff from the powerful, locally-based Symmetrics Pro Cycling, which includes Canadian Olympians Svein Tuft (Langley) and Zach Bell (Burnaby), as well as defending National Road Champion Cam Evans (Tsawwassen). Health Net Pro Cycling team is also coming back, with a team that features three-time US National Kirk O’Bee and Roman Kilun, who just last week won the crit and road race at the 2008 Tour de Nez in Reno, Nevada, as is Jittery Joes, another top North American Pro team.
 
For more BC Superweek information visit our website at www.bcsuperweek.ca, or arrange for photos of, and interviews with, the past and present Canadian Olympians and top professional cyclists as BC Superweek approaches, please contact Kevin Woodley, Media Relations Coordinator, at 604-828-5842.