Ending months of speculation, Kazakh ProTour team Astana announced Fridaythat it had signed American Chris Horner for 2008. The move, which putto rest rumors that Horner was on the verge of signing with U.S. continentalsquad Rock Racing, will see Horner ride alongside Tour de France winnerAlberto Contador as well as compatriot and U.S. national champion LeviLeipheimer. The signing also raised more than a few eyebrows, given Astana’sscandal-plagued 2007 season.

After two seasons with Predictor-Lotto that saw Horner take stage winsat the Tour of Switzerland and Tour of Romandie — as well as top 20 finishesat the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Liège-Bastogne-Liège,Flèche Wallonne and Paris-Nice — Horner reachedan impass with Predictor team owner Marc Coucke over a 2008 contract.

Couke, who is the president of Belgian healthcare-product company OmegaPharma, prides himself on fielding a ProTour team for about half the budgetof teams such as T-Mobile and Discovery Channel. After Predictor signedDiscovery Channel rider Yaroslav Popovych, Horner was told there simplywasn’t money in the budget for the salary he was requesting.

VeloNews spoke with Horner on Sunday night, following his 34thplace finish at the Crank Brothers USGP of Cyclocross event in Trenton,New Jersey. Horner’s best result this year at a national-level race wasat the November4 Boulder Cup, where he finished fifth. It was then that Horner saidthat although he didn’t know where he would ride in 2008, he was certainit wouldn’t be with Predictor-Lotto.

Two weeks later, Horner was a signed man, and free to talk about hischoice for next year.

VeloNews: You’ve got another weekend of national-level cyclocrossracing under your belt. How did it go this weekend in New Jersey?

Chris Horner: Saturday’scourse was dialed for me, but I had a bit of bad luck and I droppedmy chain. I also came up short on one of barriers, and rode easy afterthat to save myself. SundayI was all pumped to have a better race, but it rained, and they changedthe course and took out all the long straightaway sections that favoredmy type of riding. The rain made it slippery, but not real muddy, so itwas basically the worst conditions imaginable for me — it was all bike-handlingskill, which is nothing that I have really acquired yet. It was fun, butI didn’t try too hard, I just tried to learn technique. I told myself justdon’t fall down or get hurt and the day’s a success.

VN: The weekend started with the newsof you signing with Astana for next year. In some ways it was reminiscentof when you signed with Webcor in December of 2003, in that it was latein the year and I don’t think anyone saw it coming. There was so much talkabout you returning to Predictor-Lotto, or joining Rock Racing.

CH: I sure didn’t see it coming. Johan Bruyneel and Levi Leipheimergot a hold of me about it. Johan asked Levi for my number, maybe askedhim a little bit about me. Levi was happy to have me come on to the team.I talked with Johan Bruyneel, and he didn’t have a spot open, but he saidif he could find a spot he’d be in touch. When Paolo Salvodelli left [Astana],Johan gave me a call. It was a fantastic contract. It was written great,there’s good money — I just couldn’t turn it down.

Horner will bring his unique style to Astana.

Photo: Agence France Presse (file photo)

VN: When did you sign?

CH: Wednesday night [November 14]. It was done quickly. We hadbeen talking some. I told Johan if he had an offer I’d be willing to lookat it. I woke up at 8 a.m., saw I had a few text messages, I had a contractby 3 p.m. and by evening it was done. The contract was a standard UCI contract,written fairly for all parties, so I really didn’t need to change anything.Being a ProTour team, your salary is guaranteed for three months in caseanything should happen.

Everything I wanted is there with this team. You have a team that willrace the Tour de France, you have first and third place at the Tour deFrance, you have a great salary, you’re riding with a director who waswon the Tour with two different riders. There’s Levi Leipheimer, who Iknow and get along with well. If I had to leave Predictor-Lotto, whicheventually became clear that it was going to happen, signing with a teamlike this is everything I could have hoped for.

VN: You’ll be riding as teammates with Levi Leipheimer for thefirst time — what’s your relationship been like as competitors? You guysmust have some history.

CH: Yeah, this will be the first time other than maybe at worlds.Our relationship has always been good. We’re more or less the same typeof riders, GC guys. We’ve always gotten along really well — we’ve neverhad any problems at all. My impression is that Levi has always been completelyprofessional in every way when it’s related to the bike.

VN: It’s an interesting twist that Yaroslav Popovych went fromriding under Johan Bruyneel at Discovery to riding under Marc Sergeantat Predictor — a move that reportedly drained the team’s budget neededto re-sign you — while you did the reverse and left Predictor to ride underBruyneel.

CH: [Laughs] Absolutely, He came over to the team andI went the other way. Ah, there are no hard feelings to the Predictor guys.They paid me well for two years. At the end of the day the owner just didn’tsee my value, or the value in keeping me a third year. Business being whatbusiness is, they just decided to go another way.

VN: Cadel Evans has to be disappointed. I know he was campaigningfor you to stay.

CH: I would think so. I haven’t talked to him about it, but thePredictor guys knew I was talking to Astana before I did. Being Belgian,they knew at Lombardy, before I had even briefly spoken with Johan. ForCadel the team doesn’t change too much. They have Popovych, who is easilythe same quality rider as I am, if not better. I guess the only questionmight be if he’ll do the work for Cadel the same way I did.

VN: Astana started this year’s Tour de France under a cloud ofsuspicion, and left during the second rest day in shame. Did you feel anytrepidation about going to a team with a dark cloud hanging over it likethat?

CH: None. I had no hesitation to go to a team that went throughthose problems and made the necessary changes. When you see what they’vedone for next year — new manager, new director, new soigneurs — Johan Bruyneelhas stepped in and done everything he can to make the team 100 percentlegitimate in any way possible. (See “Astanacloser to anti-doping program.”)
 
From what I know, any rider having pay problems for last year willbe paid and taken care of. Johan is still honoring contracts, and ridersfrom this year’s team have the option to stay with team or leave. Johanstepped in and basically cleaned house.

VN: Alex Vinokourov was instrumental in securing that team’sinitial sponsorship. Do you have any idea what role he will play with theteam next year?

CH: I don’t know anything about how Vino' will be related tothe team. You’re really asking the wrong person there. Johan Bruyneel isrunning the team, and I haven’t a lot of time to talk with him. I understandwhat Johan’s doing with team, changing it, making it better, but my knowledgeof the team isn’t that deep yet.

VN: Have you talked with Johan about your schedule, and whatyour role will be? Will you have free reign at some of the difficult one-dayclassics you’ve excelled in, such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege or the Tour ofLombardy?

CH: Well of course in the end Johan Bruyneel has the final say,but I hope to have the exact same schedule that I’ve had the last two orthree years. As far as the classics, I think I can ride any of them, butI’d have to say that Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liege are moredialed for my type of riding.

VN: You have been one of the top American racers for the past10 years, and yet you never signed with U.S. Postal Service or DiscoveryChannel. Now, in the first year that Johan Bruyneel is not working on ateam with Lance Armstrong, he’s signed you. What should we gather fromthat?

CH: Without a doubt, one has to wonder what may or may have nothappened there. It’s pretty clear to me, without knowing for sure, thatit was never Johan Bruyneel holding me off the team when it was Postalor Discovery. I’m pretty sure it was never Johan Bruyneel holding me offthat team, but you’d have to go and ask Lance himself. Maybe they alreadyhad so many good riders, and they didn’t know me that well. It seemed tome that Johan Bruyneel is a good director, and he knows I’m a good rider,so if you put two and two together… Of course that is not fact, just opinion.At the end of the day, Lance had the team that he wanted around him, andfor whatever reason I wasn’t part of that.

VN: One could speculate that you might be a bit too outspokento have been a part of Armstrong’s team, where he was indisputably theboss.

CH: Yeah, but if you look at the way I rode at Predictor, I dideverything asked of me and expected of me. Look at the Tour of Lombardy.Cadel needed to place sixth to win the ProTour. I didn’t ride for myself,even though I knew I wasn’t coming back to the team. I could have riddenfor my own result and shopped that around, but I rode for Cadel becausethat was what was asked of me and expected of me. I did what was best forthe team, because that’s what they paid me to do.

If Lance had put me on his team, I would have done my job, whateverhe’d asked. I may be more outspoken than most guys, like when I am donewith a race and if someone raced cheesy, I’m not afraid to say it. AndI’ve done that with myself, I’m the first to admit when I’ve screwed up.I’m not afraid to say it about myself or about anyone else. That may havekept me from Lance’s team. Like I said, you’d have to ask Lance. We gotalong fine, we just never really became friends. If they’d asked, I wouldhave joined Lance’s team, and I would have done whatever they’d asked ofme. I wouldn’t put up with being told what to do off the bike, that’s notmy style. But if he asked me to go to the front and ride for him, I wouldn’thave had any problem with that. I would have been happy to do it.

VN: Just a few months ago you were fairly outspoken about Armstrongand his previous Tour teams, saying, “You can’t have a leader's team gettingto the final climb with five guys on the front, like every year from threeyears back all the way back. It is impossible to ride the front with yourwhole team and get to the final climb with most of your team still on thefront — and be ready to come back and do it day in and day out.... I don'tbelieve it to be possible.”

Now you’re joining a team run by Johan Bruyneel, the director of a teamthat was doing things a few years ago that “didn’t seem possible.” Howwill you reconcile that?

CH: I think there has been a change in the sport in general.From everything I’ve seen, the speeds in the field versus the past, everythinghas changed. I believe the sport is becoming better and better, from theriders’ organizations to the UCI and WADA, everyone is doing everythingthey can to eliminate as much of the drug problem as possible. I don’thave any problem going to Astana. Sure, they had problems last year withtwo of their biggest riders, but the addition of Johan Bruyneel changedthe whole team completely to avoid those issues.

As far as the years past, well last year with Johan’s team you weren’tseeing five guys going over the last climb together. What may or may nothave happened in the past is completely different than what you’re seeingnow.

I honestly believe that every team is doing what they can to stop whatwas happening in the past. I know Johan was asking riders for their bloodresults from the past, to make sure he’s not getting riders who have beenat a 49 hematocrit for their whole career. I had to show him my past bloodresults, which he asked of everyone when he was looking into riders. Itwas the same with CSC. I also talked to Bjarne Riis, and when I was talkingto CSC he wanted to see all my blood results, what was happening in thepast. I think everyone wants to see this left behind and no longer an issue.I know the riders don’t want to see it; no one wants to see any more problems.The sport doesn’t need to live through another nine years like the lastnine years. But just look at Rabobank at the Tour — they threw out MichaelRasmussen. In years past I don’t know if a team would have done that. AndI’m pretty sure Johan Bruyneel isn’t going to put up with anyone just disappearing for a month.