Chris Horner

Horner turned professional in 1995 with the PAA–NutraFig team.[7] He captured his first major victory in a stage win of the Tour DuPont in 1996.

He was then asked to ride in Europe with French team Française des Jeux. From 1997 to 1999 he had three frustrating seasons with this team.

In 2000 Horner returned to America to resume a record-setting domestic career, riding with Mercury in 2000, Prime Alliance in 2002, Saturn in 2003 and Webcor Builders in 2004. Horner has won almost every important race in the US racing calendar, with the notable exception of the USPRO National Championships.

Horner decided to move to Saunier Duval–Prodir after his top-ten finish in the 2004 UCI Road World Championships because he wanted to give the Tour de France a try. After being injured in the beginning of 2005, Horner showed strong performance in the USPRO Championships and won his first major European victory by taking the sixth stage of the 2005 Tour de Suisse. He then earned his place on the 2005 Tour de France team and nearly won the Miramas to Montpellier stage when he and Sylvain Chavanel refused to cooperate in the final kilometers and were caught by the peloton.

He made a move to the Belgian UCI ProTour squad Davitamon–Lotto for the 2006 season.

For 2007 Horner signed with Ed Krall Racing for the cyclo-cross season.

In 2008 Horner moved to Astana. Horner earned the nickname "The Smiler" for his unflappable expression of happiness, even during the most excruciating physical challenges, and "The Yahoo Kid" for his wild exclamations after winning a race. Teammates Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong call him "The Redneck".

In the 2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Horner carried amateur cyclist and Nordic combined skier Bill Demong (who was from another team) with his broken bicycle to the finish line.[8][9]

On October 4, 2009 it was confirmed that Horner would compete for Team RadioShack in the next two seasons.[10] In one of his strongest European campaigns, Horner garnered first overall at the Tour of the Basque Country, including a stage win in the critical 6th stage individual time trial, defeating overall threat Alejandro Valverde. Horner also achieved several top 10 placings in the Spring classics of La Flèche Wallonne, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Amstel Gold Race. He and his RadioShack teammates did well at the Tour of California, with Horner putting on a particularly strong performance in the last stage of the race as a member of a final breakaway at Thousand Oaks. Horner finished fourth overall, 64 seconds behind winner Michael Rogers, and just 39 seconds behind teammate Levi Leipheimer in overall time. His good form also resulted in a 9th place overall at the Tour de France, as the first-placed American rider, in spite of dedicating himself in the first stages to supporting his captain Lance Armstrong.

In 2011 Horner continued his success at the Tour of the Basque Country with a second-place finish,[11] as well as 4th at the Volta a Catalunya. Horner then accomplished another high-profile result by winning May's Tour of California stage race. He scored a major solo victory on the 4th stage, after making significant time gains on the day's final mountain finish in San Jose.[12] He maintained his hold on the yellow jersey until the tour's queen stage, where he completed a two-man breakaway finish with teammate Levi Leipheimer to finalize the overall lead, and at age 39 became the oldest rider in history to win that tour.[13][14] His participation at the Tour de France was short lived after a crash left him out of the competition.

In 2012, Horner signed with RadioShack–Nissan. He started the Tirreno–Adriatico as his first race since July where he finished second after losing his lead in the final time trial to Vincenzo Nibali.[15] He then finished 8th in the Tour of California, failing to defend his title. He then rode the Tour de France where he ended up finishing 13th overall after putting a good performance in the mountains.

After suffering an injury in the beginning of 2013, Horner returned to action after winning stage 5 in the Tour of Utah and finishing 2nd overall. Less than three weeks later, in stage 3 of the Vuelta a España, Horner attacked over the last kilometer to win the stage and take the overall lead in the race. By doing this, he became the oldest rider in history (41 years and 307 days) to win a stage and wear the leader's jersey in a Grand Tour.[17] He won again on stage 10, another uphill finish, reclaiming the lead.[18] and setting a new record of the oldest rider (41 years and 314 days) to win a stage in a Grand Tour. Horner's success at the race continued but from stage 11 onward Vincenzo Nibali held the race lead. Going into stage 18 Nibali, who was already a Vuelta a España champion and seeking to win the elusive Grand Tour double as he had won the Giro a few months earlier, was in the Red jersey and had only Horner within a minute of him. In fact his gap was only +0:28 but following stage 18 this gap was cut down to just three seconds. Following stage 19 which concluded on Monte Naranco Horner took the leaders jersey by three seconds over Nibali setting up what was to be a final battle on the Angliru. It was Nibali's plan to attack and drop Horner on the Angliru and ride on to his second Vuelta championship and initially it seemed like this might be the case before he was caught on this final climb. The weather for this climb was like riding in a cloud with virtually zero visibility to the point that the television bikes and helicopters lost track of the riders and the only way they could tell who was where was by experimental transponders on the riders bikes, which worked better than anticipated. Nibali and Horner rode together up the Angliru with Nibali attacking over and over again in an effort to drop the American, but Horner was able to respond to every attack. Only when it looked as though Nibali was absolutely spent did Horner launch an attack[19] and in the end he rode away from the Italian and even came within thirty seconds of catching Kenny Elissonde who at one point had been much further up the road in a breakaway attempt going for the stage win. Horner secured his Vuelta victory by 0:37 over Nibali and had to put in the 2nd fastest ascent of the Alto de l'Angliru in order to do so. Only Roberto Heras in 2000 made the climb in less time.

He won the race overall on September 15, 2013 in Madrid, the oldest ever Grand Tour winner.[20][21]

He left RadioShack–Leopard at the end of the season, as his contract expired. He felt he was worth more than the team were willing to offer for a rider of his resume and ability.

Horner joined Lampre–Merida for the 2014 season.[22] In April, while training in Italy for the Giro d'Italia, he was hit by a car driver who subsequently fled the scene. Horner suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs in the accident, jeopardizing his participation[23] at the Giro d'Italia. He elected not to compete in the Giro d'Italia; on June 30, 2014, Horner was named in Lampre's Tour de France squad, with Rui Costa as team leader.[24]

He placed second in the mountainous Tour of Utah[25] which he raced in preparation for the Vuelta a España. However, Horner withdrew from the Vuelta ahead of the first stage due to his cortisol levels dropping below the threshold considered healthy by the Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible, of which Lampre–Merida is a member. The announcement followed Horner's usage of cortisone on prescription under a therapeutic use exemption to treat a case of bronchitis.[26]

Lampre–Merida opted not to extend Horner's contract, and in December 2014 he announced he had signed a deal with UCI Continental team Airgas–Safeway for 2015.[27]

In June 2018, Horner returned to racing for the United States National Road Race Championships, riding for Team Illuminate. He said that overcoming a bronchial infection that had plagued the tailend of his career had convinced him to come out of retirement.[28] However, he eventually did not finish the road race.[29]