Coming into the final stretch of the T-Mobile International, Saturn’s Chris Horner knew he’d won the race, he just didn’t know preciselywhen. Away on a solo break — with a one-minute advantage over teammate Mark McCormack and loud crowds drowning out his earpiece — Horner passed through the start/finish area on San Francisco’s Embarcadero and kept right on rolling until spectators lining the area waved him around.

“I absolutely believed I had another [5-mile] lap to ride,” Horner smiled, adding, “And I would have held them all off if I had to.”

Course understanding aside, Horner and USPRO champ McCormack raced brilliantly Sunday, taking first and second in a field littered with stars from the European peloton, including Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. The race, which features maximum grades of 18 percent and is rumored to become a UCI World Cup event in 2004, drew stars from the women’s European peloton, and was also won on a solo breakaway, by World Cup winner Nicole Cooke (Ausra Grodis-Safi).

Capping off a season that has seen Saturn nearly sweep America’s marquee cycling events, Horner overcame an inopportune flat with less than 10 miles remaining. While bridging with Aussie Ben Brooks (Jelly Belly) to race leaders David Clinger (Prime Alliance), Rolf Aldag (Telekom), Jason Lokkesmore (Health Net) and McCormack, Horner required a wheel change, but quickly jumped back on and caught the group.

Once Horner had bridged, McCormack launched an attack of his own, allowing Horner to sit in and recover. After McCormack was reeled in, Horner countered and quickly opened a 45-second gap that widened to the end.

Behind, McCormack held off a surge from Saeco’s Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni to finish alone, 49 seconds behind Horner and 13 seconds ahead of U.S. Postal’s Viatcheslav Ekimov.

“They’re the homegrown,” Ekimov smiled after just bettering his fourth-place finish last year to Charles Dionne and Henk Vogels. “They should win. Horner rode a great race.”

Citing fatigue from a virus he battled earlier in the week, Armstrong dropped out of the race midway through. Also DNFs were Telekom’s Alex Vinokourov and Vini Caldirola’s Stefano Garzelli. Of the big-name Euros in attendance, only Simoni finished, safely at the rear of the main bunch after his efforts to reel in McCormack had failed.

“At the top of [the final ascent of] the Taylor Street climb I looked back and saw them gaining on me, and I thought ‘Uh-oh, that’s only 100 meters,” McCormack said. “Then I realized that 100 meters on that hill is probably 30 seconds, and when I got to the bottom of the descent I knew I could hold them off.”

Horner’s win adds to a season tally that includes stage race wins at the Solano Cycling Classic, Redlands and the Tour de Georgia.

Cooke continues her streak
In the women’s 49-mile event, Britain’s Cooke won in similar fashion after she opened up a 10-second gap with a hard surge on the final ascent up the steep Taylor Street climb and never looked back.

The women hit the infamous Fillmore and Taylor Street climbs four times, and after an initial move on lap two was shadowed by Barry, the 20-year-old phenom waited until the final pitch to launch another attack.

“That was just an unbelievable attack,” said Saturn’s Katie Mactier, who finished second in a bunch-sprint ahead of Nürnberger’s Judith Arndt, less than ten seconds back of Cooke.

Arndt agreed. When asked what she might have done differently, she answered, “Nothing. There was nobody who could have matched that. Nicole was the strongest rider, and she deserved to win.”

“I gave it everything I had,” Cooke said. “That hill was incredible.”Cooke added that she hoped to return to San Francisco next year, as part of the World Cup circuit.

T-Mobile’s Dede Barry finished fifth on the day, a result that doesn’t reflect her performance on the day. With her team missing key members Kimberly Bruckner and Amber Neben, Barry rode with courage, valiantly covering every break and pulling Mactier, Arndt and Cooke’s teammate Modesta Vzesniauskaite for the final 3km from Taylor to the finish area.

“I wasn’t concerned with them sitting on,” Barry said. “I was racing to win today, I didn’t care about who got second place.”

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