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Video: Chris Horner's Philadelphia bike toss - in slow motion
Some sporting moments are best enjoyed in slow motion – Muhammad Ali’s ‘phantom punch’ that floored Sonny Liston, or the Shane Warne ‘Ball of the Century’ – his first-ever Ashes delivery – that dismissed a bamboozled Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993. And now, we have … Chris Horner’s bike toss at the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic yesterday.
It’s easy for those of us in Europe to forget that the 2013 Vuelta winner is still racing. Since leaving Lampre-Merida at the end of 2014, the baby-faced 44-year-old has been riding almost exclusively in the United States, this season with the Lupus Racing Team.
On the final climb of Lemon Hill during yesterday’s race, Horner’s chain shipped on one of the worst parts of the course for that to happen, the slow-motion footage capturing first his efforts to reseat the chain, then his frustration as he realises any chance to contest the win has gone.
After bouncing his bike off the road surface (and almost into a media moto), a pensive looking Horner then takes aim at a water bottle rolling towards him … and in a technique we’d love to see Premier League penalty takers employ, until the very last second it looks as though he’s going to hoof it with his right foot, until switching to his left to dispatch it.
Horner finished the race in 45th place, 1 minute 18 seconds behind the winner, Spanish rider Eduard Prades of the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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20 comments
No entirely slow-mo video should be two minutes and three seconds long.
Not doing that with white bike shoes so fingers it is!
Am I the only one who can put the chain back on with his shoe thus avoiding messy lubricant on the hands? It's not like it's a difficult skill to learn.
Of course, he was running SRAM... Still can't stop a chain falling off even with integrated chain catchers... no wonder they moved to 1x setups
Ah...but...
Pedant is only one word :p
Isn't it?
"that's" constitutes two words doesn't it?
So that's twelve then.
two words: Chain Catcher....
Problem solved.
(ok, so that's four words).
Eleven actually.
My GOD man have you no idea how much those behemoths WEIGH?! That's a good 15 grams right there. Might as well fill the frame with squirty cheese!
that might damp it better...
Sorry but he should pay for the damage to the bike and race organisers should fine such behaviour! It sets a bad example to kids watching the sport.
they should extend the fine for wearing those all black shoes, totally unacceptable especially with kids watching.
Why the hell did he think trying to fix it from the non-drive side would have worked - who does that?
Actually, I've found that it works pretty well to hook the chain on the small ring from the non drive side and run the crank arround backwards, which is what it looked like he started to do. Unless you're rear deraileur is fouled up or you have your front deraileur on the bing ring, you're back on in a few seconds.
What baffled me was that he pulled it down like he was going to get it back on from the bottom, then kept going arround to the top. In which case, yes, you should do it from the drive side.
The only thing I can think of is that he had a chain catcher that didn't catch the chain, which is now trapped and extremely dificult to get back on the ring. I had that hapen to me about a year ago and I nearly threw my bike as it caused me to lose a very fast group that I'd been with for 80 miles of a 98 mile ride. Diference being that I actually paid for my bike, so I wasn't about to inflict more damage.
Why do you think approaching it from the other side would be better?
I've always done it that way, I would think it's the most practical. Unless you bother flipping the bike upside down or resting it against a wall, if you're standing in the middle of the road then the best thing is to stand on the non-drive side , bend over the top tube or saddle to stabilise the bike, right hand extending the derailleur, left hand putting the chain back in place.
Petulant little tosser
Bit rash on the face of it..
Lupus.
Like really. The team's called Lupus?
Perfect name if you are wanting to raise awareness of the disease, which is unsurprisingly their remit.