Normally I would have mentioned Chris Horner in the post about the Portland weekend, but he deserves his own space and title.
Now we know that Chris Horner likes 'cross racing, his name pops up in results most weekends pretty soon after Lombardy has been and gone, and I hear he is relatively local to Portland, but to see him splashing round anonymously mid-pack on saturday at the USGP gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, that after all the crap associated with ProTour road racing in recent months, here was a guy who definitely loved bike racing in whatever form, and didn't have a problem getting his arse kicked; no ego on show, no attitude.
Even better, he then showed up on sunday, but to spectate! I'm sorry, I cannot see any of his peers standing in mid-calf deep mud being battered by the elements, trying to keep an umbrella from turning inside out, watching a bike race.
If you are a road racer (doubtful, why would you be reading a 'cross blog?!), take a leaf from Mr Horner's book and widen your horizons with other disciplines, if you are a 'cross rider with little interest in the road, well make Chris the guy you follow during the summer; he deserves your support, he is a cyclist who has never forgotten why he does this sport, and personally I salute him.
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Cross Advice is Simon Burney's blog devoted to the sport of cyclocross.
- Simon
- Simon Burney spent three years racing the professional cyclocross circuit before an injury forced him into team management. For the past twenty years, Simon has been managing cyclocross and mountain bike teams. As a manager of professional teams through the 1990s, Simon was privilege to work with the finest 'cross riders of that generation: world champions Dominique Arnould and Henrik Djernis, plus Beat Wabel, and Peter Van Den Abeele, among others. Simon served as manager of the Great Britain mountain bike team in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. In the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, he was manager of the English team. Since 2000, Simon has worked for British Cycling as the performance manager of their mountain bike and cyclocross teams, and continues to manage the national team at the world championships. The 2007 World Championships at Hooglede-Gits was Simon's twenty-sixth consecutive year at Worlds as either a rider, mechanic, team manager, or spectator, and he vows to keep going until an English speaker (preferably a Brit!) wins the elite race.
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