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Welcome to Story Time with Chris horer I’m Chris horer and today’s Story Time guys I want to talk about the 2010 tour to France and why the grand Tours are so spectacular okay if you look at the grand Tours and you compare them to the
Onewe races that are 7 to 10 days long the big difference what makes The Grand Tour so special is the drama there is always going to be drama if you took your own family members and you tied them all up and you pinned them together for 21 days there’s bound to be drama
Right well you got 170 to 200 plus writers depending on which year of the tour to France we’re talking about and you got 21 days of racing so there’s going to be some drama now in 2010 is the story I want to talk about and I
Wanted to get into stage three of the Cobblestone the Cobblestone stage of that that Year’s 2010 Tor to France because there was all kinds of drama in the Radio Shack team that year now when we look at the tour to France in general when you look at 2010 you think wow when
You start start thinking about that race it was the year where in stage two we were racing in Belgium through spa and they neutralized the race the Riders did not the officials but all the Riders neutralize the race and I’ll get to that story on one one time further here in
The Chris horer story times but when you look at 2010 you had that on stage two you had the cobblestones on stage three you had stage seven8 when Lance Armstrong crashed out spectacularly and lost any chance of winning the general classification of the 2010 tour to
France but the wasn’t even over you go into Stage 15 col deales when Andy Schleck dropped his chain and Alberto contador lit him up to take the race leaders yellow jersey in the 2010 tour only later to test positive and lose it to Andy Schleck there was all kinds of
Drama in 2010 when you fast forward you start looking at some of the other tour to France years 2014 I think was the biggest torto France drama that never happened because of course Alberto contador end up crashing out and hurting his knee Chris FR end up crashing out
Before the cobblestones of that Year’s Tor of France before we even reached the first Cobblestone I know cuz I was right behind it when he crashed and then when you start going further and you look at 2018 when Garren Thomas juon and he beat Chris FR Chris fr the guy who is the
King there on team Sky well there was some drama there go into 2020 remember that year oh man stage 20 the individual time trial when T Pacha came out of the box and took the ra leaders yellow Jersey on the penultimate stage of the tour to France from his Slovenian
Compatriot that was an amazing tour to France so every year the grand Tours always hold drama and it doesn’t have to be the tour to France that could take you back to last year’s walta ESP remember that drama for sep cus and he had to battle against his own teammates
That’s what makes The Grand Tour special but in this 2010 Year on stage three I want to talk about the Betrayal the Betrayal and lies that happened throughout the the Cobblestone stage of stage three of the 2010 Tor of France but before we get into that I got to
Back you up before the Tor of France even started as the Radio Shack Team all flew into the north of France so we can preview the Cobblestone stage well we flew in we had good night’s sleep and the next morning we had a nice breakfast the sun was out it was looking gorgeous
And we had nine Radio Shack teammates there now we had three guys that were going for GC but one main guy his name is Lance Armstrong you might remember him the next guy of course Levi leimer and then the other guy Andreas Clen those were our three guys to go for
General classification but clearly it was Lance Armstrong’s team because it was called team Radio Shack and when you start looking at the other climbers Yanni Brockovich he was there and of course I was there there’s five solid climbers and then we have yavas papovich AKA Papo he was there and he was always
The main Lieutenant for Lance Armstrong throughout multiple times throughout his victories in earlier years so you know papovich was always able and capable of looking after a teammate to 100% Sergio Peno was there the Portuguese Rider fabulous domestique he can climb good he can ride the flats marvelous Rider and
Then there was rosta Gregory Ross the Swiss Rider he super domotique on all the flats and he had a little bit of help too with Dimitri morv now morv was absolutely solid on all the flats and then when it started to climb up a little bit more like Gregory Rous that’s
When they started to suffer a little bit but on stage three on a cobblestone stage you know when you’re talking about Rasta and Demitri morf that those were going to be two big time lieutenants to look after Lance Armstrong and all of us little guys like Yanni brovich and
Myself so as we get into the pre-training ride before the tour to France stages even start we’re there riding the cobblestones and we’re flying I’m on the wheel of Lance Armstrong as we’re doing the preview of the cobbles and I’m looking at my power meter and it’s reading 500 plus Watts as we’re
Going through the cobbles and this was the moment when I thought wow Lance Armstrong might win number eight to to France cuz he is flying right now on spectacular form we had a great preview to the cobblestones there then we hopped in the private jet and we flew off to
The Netherlands to start stage one the prologue which is really stage zero because they don’t have stage one if it’s called the prologue so when we get into the prologue of course Lance Armstrong goes wellne plac his top five that makes it solid that we know he’s
The race leader for Radio Shack and he’s on fantastic form just a little over 20 seconds off of the winning time of Fabi and kelara now kelara was flying but kelara had other duties he had to look after because he had two brothers and those two brothers Andy and Frank are
His teammates and they are solid Riders to win the general classification of the 2010 torto fronts now just behind Lance Armstrong on that first stage prologue there was Alberto contador and he was the big time favorite cuz well we all know he’s won some torto Frances himself
Too so he’s riding there there for estana the Schleck brothers are riding for saxo and they got Fabian canelar as their teammate and Radio Shack my team’s got a host of good talent so we look like it’s going to be a dog fight when we start getting into the climbs here at
The torto France but everybody has been worried about this stage three Cobblestone stage since the January 1st if not the year before when the ASO organizers released it many times throughout the season my director sport Chief would come up to me and he’d go it
Was a l Galla and you go Chris remember there’s some cobblestones coming maybe you want to go up and preview I said Gallow I grew up racing in the US doing criteriums I don’t need to preview the cobblestones I just need to see it one time right before the tour starts so I
Know where that last corner is before the Cobble start and don’t worry about me I’ll be in good position because I grew up doing crits throughout the first 10 years of my career and now I’m old enough and experienced enough to know exactly where to be when the Cobblestone
Starts well the stage gets on the way after stage two and stage two had some drama like I told you with all the crashes but we still know that the main GC guys are all intact as the Cobblestone start now this is going to be a long stage about 210 215 km long
And six sections of cobblestones but the road would be narrow and twisty before we get into the cobbles and the drama would start just about there now as we start coming closer into the cobblestones we’re getting far and up the road going solo up there’s going to
Be Ryder Hol and he’s riding for garment now behind this getting action is getting packed and it’s Fabi and kilara and his saxo bank teammates are on his wheel as they’re drilling it coming into the cobblestones in my ear going off like crazy was Johan bernil our general
Manager who’s the director sitting in car number one now yelling at us to get to the front guys start driving it you got to lead out Lance Armstrong in the cobbles I’m up at the front before the cobbles start and I’m thinking there’s
No way I can do it I weigh 137 lbs but if my teammates arri up there I’m going to jump on their wheel we’re going to put on a show now the big guys never made it quite to the front they got tied up in the curb to curb action and who
Was going to beat the saxo bank team at the 2010 tour to France Cobblestone stage when they got a leader like Fabian canelar it wasn’t going to happen so I switched to the second mode as we’re coming into the cobblestones I always stayed just behind Lance Armstrong so I
Was sweeping his wheel all the time anytime we got into the straightaways before going into the corners I would weave straight out to the inside of block it so no one could come up this side of the road which was putting a lot of wind on me and a lot of effort before
We’d start the first cobbles but the most important priority of course was Lance Armstrong and making sure he’s in a good position every time we hit the first cobblestones there was chaos all over people crashing bodies going everywhere and then we come into one of the cobblestones and it’s Frank schle
That goes down and ends up breaking his collarbone now when he goes down he Causes Chaos all over and it’s me and Levi light pimer on the right side of the road my teammates that has been just behind us had made it through some holes in the Pelon that was littered all over
The cobblestones there with Frank Schleck sitting on the side of the road and up the road was Andy Schleck and Fabian celar who was pulling like the tgv up there trying to get Andy Schleck into a good General classification position now that Alberto contador and Lance Armstrong had both missed the
Split now what’s happening up there I’ll get to later but what’s happening in the back is pure chaos as myself and Lei light pimer on the right side of the road Levi is trying to get going onto his bike but the problem is is there’s like a cluster of bodies and bikes here
Another cluster here with a little Gateway of opening here and a Gateway on the left side Levi and I are over here and he can’t get into this section to get going because it’s like guys coming by on the 405 freeway and you’re sitting there at a dead stop trying to find an
Entrance to get onto the freeway so I took my bike and I threw it out in the road which blocked that hole then Levi jumped jumped on his bike and shot through the hole I jumped on my bike and tried to follow afterwards directly but I couldn’t get my foot into the pedal
Quick enough as I finally got it in I looked up Levi wasn’t waiting for me at that point in time I shut it down I knew my stage three here at the torto France was just about getting to the finish and all of a sudden all the priority was the
Riders up front and I was sitting in back all I could do is rest the legs and wait for another stage well as it comes to the finish of the stage I end up having Lei Levi light pimer back with me and a bunch of my teammates in my group
And we finished about 40th 50th 50th spot on GC on the stage that day and we lost about three minutes on time well up front Lance Armstrong finished in the group in front but it was the fourth group and end up losing about 2 minutes
40 seconds but only about 1 minute 10 to Alberto contador which was the main threat now when I come across the line I go straight back to the Radio Shack bus and this is when all the drama starts right you guys think well it all started Radio Shack on the cobblestones it
Really started in the bus I get in the bus and all of a sudden there’s drama all over the place and Johan bernal’s upset Lance Armstrong’s upset all the members in the team are all quiet and we get up here and we start trying to figure out what happened in the race
Well what I didn’t tell you happened after that crash was Lance Armstrong was bridging across the Gap trying to get up to the front group with Fabi and canelar pulling Andy Schleck Andy Schleck wasn’t waiting for his brother Frank cuz he was the bigger GC favorites so they were
Going full gas and like I said Frank’s Tor to France was done so Lance Armstrong was going full gas trying to get across and end up flatting now he pulls over to the left side of the road and he’s got some teammates there to give him a wheel and Popovich is waiting
Up the road he’s got Gregory rast that either handed them the wheel or Demitri morv did I don’t remember exactly the story there but he gets the wheel he gets going and he’s flying up the road now what happened why am I telling this story where is the Betrayal line well
It’s Levi light Parmer right he’s going full gas he goes past the American Rider Lance Armstrong the seven time torto France Champion as he’s going full gas past Lance Armstrong he doesn’t wait and on top of that there’s more chaos and more drama as he’s coming out of the
Cobblestones he’s reaching the back group and as he’s reaching the gra back group there’s my teammate Yanni brovich and they don’t come more loyal than Yanni brovich the Slovenian is the most loyal teammate and fabulous teammate that I ever had the pleasure of rooming with he was an amazing guy and you
Always knew he was 100% for the team tactics and the best option for the team to win all the time so Yanni Brockovich is dropping out of the back of the group as Levi leimer’s coming full gas yelling at him to go now Yanni’s like hey I
Gotta wait for Lance and Levi just tells him to go and pull him back up to the group well he does what Levi tells him of course because Levi is the champion right so Levi gets up there Yanni starts pulling full gas and pulls him back up
To that next group well there’s nobody back there waiting for Lance Armstrong because he had Popovich with him but Popovich ended up using up everything he had to get him through the cobblestones and then Lance was on his own chasing all the way to the Finish now when I get
In the bus and all the drama going crazy Levi is blaming Yanni for dropp him back and not waiting for Lance and towing him back up to the group and I’m sitting there thinking like no that’s not possible I know Yanni Brockovich very well and like I said I’ve roomed with
Him many times throughout my professional career and they don’t come any better this is the best they come and I think about it as I’m sitting in my in the bus seat there if we get back to the hotel and first thing I want to
Do is I get off the bus I walk into my room and I happen to be rooming with Yanni Brockovich and I walk in and he’s sitting in there and I said Yanni Brock I said what happened what really happened well Yanni brovich was just devastated the whole time as he’s
Telling me the story of what really happened now I leave the room and I walk into Lance Armstrong’s room and I go guys this is what really happened Levi came by you Lance and full gas and then at the end of the Cobblestone of course
Told Yanni to wait to wait just for him and Go full gas and forget about you basically so when when I look at the drama of all the stages throughout that Year’s tour to France the biggest had to be for me personally that stage three of the cobblestones when you have a
Teammate pass Lance Armstrong on the side of the road and he says I didn’t see him then he holds back and then then he keeps driving all the way up to Yanni makes Yanni hold back and bring him to the group and then when he gets
In the bus he lies about not being not seeing an Armstrong and not knowing why Yanni was dropping off the back of the group well like I said I went over to Lance and had the discussion with Lance Lance I’m sure had the discussion with of course Johan Bernell and then the
Next day in the bus before the stage started the drama was still high and all of us confronted Levi leimer and said what happened because I know what happened from Yanni Brockovich story because I heard it from him I know what happened from my view and now I’ve heard
Enough of the other view of the writers to know that Levi you passed by Lance Armstrong Levi again held tough to a story of saying that I didn’t see Lance Armstrong and I sat there with all my teammates around and I said I find it
Hard to believe that you can go by on a cobblestone Road that’s probably no bigger than 15 ft wide and it’s a seven time torto France champion on the left side of the road wearing red right and you couldn’t see Lance Armstrong well the drama had started from that
Stage three of Lance Armstrong flatting and the Betrayal from Levi leimer throughout the next few weeks there at the tour to France and it never ended the drama just kept getting bigger and bigger as we know later in that 2010 tour to France Lance kept crashing all
Over the place Levi and Andreas Clen started racing for General classification I started half in the race for this beautiful beautiful little team classification trophy right here that is that is so amazing and the effort that I put in to win the team classification that year and to get on
The podium on the Shan Le is wow this thing’s just you know so amazing right here oops I just dropped it but anyways if you got to race the tour to France let me tell you there’s always going to be some drama throughout whether if it’s
In your team whether if it’s in the pelaton or whether if it’s just your teammates betrayal as we saw with Levi lier in the 2010 tour to France on stage three there’s always going to be something exciting to keep an eye out for when we’re talking about a grand
Tour cuz 3 weeks of racing guys you couldn’t even stay together 3 weeks with your own family without having some kind of drama and you put that many guys together you know it’s going to be big and it’s always exciting that’s why I believe you never you never play with
The grand Tours in terms of all the times they talk about making it shorter no way three weeks is what makes a grand tour not one week of racing so when you sitting down on the couch and you’re watching this year’s tour to France and you see the four big teams there all
Battling out make sure you know there’s going to be drama in the race but there’s going to be drama in the teams too and there’s always always could be some betrayal you just got to look a little deep for it that was my story from the 23 cobblestones hope you guys
Enjoyed Story Time with Chris horer like And subscribe I’ll see you on the next Edition real soon
44 Comments
Gives me a better idea why Levi couldn't get on a team after his 6-month suspension.
How effective are the radios in those situations? I would imagine everyone knew Armstrong was on the side of the road, but I could be wrong.
Amazing story. I watched that Tour closely and never had any idea of the internal team struggles. Levi don't look so good here, I have to say. Thanks, Chris, for that honest, fascinating behind-the-scenes look.
One small correction. Lance is a zero (not 7) time TDF winner.
Always wondered what happened at that tour, got into a lot of “discussions “ with friends throughout those weeks. It was interesting listening to the “experts” talk about the tactics.
Thanks for another story time. Keep them coming. Very few pros will tell the stories. Your Vuelta win is still the high bar for me, and there’s nothing wrong with that👍. Eclipsing that will take something special.
Chris Froome……we know why he won those TDFs……
That 2010 TDF was such a sh*t show. TOO much 'drama', and too much doping and bad actors. At least the Grand Tours are somewhat cleaned up now, with less idiot behavior in total. Still some individual knuckleheads in each one, but overall a much better product now.
Have to go back & watch now. 2010 was a "rough" year. 😢 for the family.
Oops, I dropped it 😆 it's a shame they give you guys garbage for what you go through risking your life. It's offensive!
Thanks for sharing 👊
I guess Mr. Armstrong was not used to being the screwee rather than the screwer! LOL. Great story!!
Damn, all that drama. 😅
Wish you'd tell what, if anything, you know about Lance, Frankie, and Betsy.
I always found Betsy to have, in some important ways, similar personality traits to Lance.
She seems like a top tier bullshit artist. Her claims to not know that Frankie was doping until the 1999 TDF is such obvious BS.b
Story time request 2011 Tour of California Stage 7. Final climb of Mount Baldy. You and Levi just rode everyone off your wheel. It didn’t look like you were even breathing hard. Everyone else in climbing hell behind you.
16:05 LMFAO
Great story! 2 things you left out that I have questions for but I think I know the answer to…
1. My guess is you wouldn’t want to repeat some of the words coming out of Lance’s mouth to your mother…
2. You and Levi probably don’t exchange Christmas cards 😂
I'm going to take a leap of faith here… I don't see Levi sitting at your table for Thanksgiving any time soon. After Levi threw the dice, he only managed a 12th place anyhow… perhaps he learned from this.
2010? Was severely impacted by leaving Switzerland in January (after 12y there); it took a few years to re-energize for it. 😮
Hi Chris
What was Levi’s end game? Stage win?
Esp after Lance lost 1.5min to Alberto the day before?
Great story, but WHY?
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HornerStoryCorner
Lance is like 9 feet tall, how could you not see him as you ride by? 😂😂😂
That story surprised me, I was thinking that Lance was the guy you were going to say did the betrayal… Levi is our home town hero here in Santa Rosa. He has a good reputation here
lance the knucklehead
You got me, Chris! Based on the thumbnail, the overlay text (I thought the arm obscured the word "Me") the title and black shirt, I thought, "OMG! Horner is going to spill the beans, after all these years!" Turns out to be wishful thinking, on my part. Instead, we get the story about Levi, which I've heard before. The 'didn't see anything, didn't know anything about it' (The Program) loyal sphinx of the Omerta years remains silent. Honestly, I don't care what any pro had to or has to do to attain that extra 1-2% of competitive advantage, but I'd like to hear more about it spoken openly.
Lance won the tour as many times as I did!
Great story Chris. Keep the story times going. Always like your perspective and analysis.
Lancen Armstrong was never going for his 8th tdf. Cool story but still a narcissist and a fraud in my books.
Please don't glorify Tours with either Lance and the other dopers , and doped deniers who ruined others careers… giving your channel a rest
Lance's picture hung on my wall for years, next to Greg's picture, until I took it down and threw it away. I wanted to forgive him, but his lack of sincere contrition made that impossible. The worst part is that he ruined the most inspiring cancer survivor story ever. Such a beautiful story and he ruined it.
Didn't remember that betrayal by "bottle" (I'm sure some here remember the hilarious "animated" videos that imagined what happened behind the scenes, wish I'd saved them) but the 2009 would probably qualify as even higher stakes drama, the stage to Verbier for instance with Kloden chasing Contador for Lance !
Great storytelling. Not a surprise. As usual, Levi rode for Levi.
On another note, Chris, thanks for using "penultimate" correctly. A lot of people mistakenly think it means "super-duper." I learned it from my music professor, along with antepenultimate and preantepenultimate. Can't say I use those too often, though.
Great story, Chris. A Solerism before Soler.
Story time with Chris!!
Love how you’re putting out videos everyday!
We miss you!
More story time!!!
Remco, Pogi, Jonas, G-man, Roggy – oh yeah, there's going to be drama, and then some, at this year's TdF.
More drama, skulduggery and skin shown than the Game of Thrones!!
Keep the stories coming and keep the lawyer on retainer😊
Like him or not, Levi is a good follow on Strava.
The terrible part of Lance is not that he doped as a professional cyclist, Lance used those dead and dying cancer patients to hide his lies. If the truth came near, Lance would use Livestrong to put out another commercial with some children or someone whose rotting body looked pathetic enough to ask for donations. The common defense of Lance is "but look what he did for cancer" and that is a carefully crafted lie which was perpetrated. I was a Senior Leader at Livestrong and while that organization does do good things, Lance used it as a shield for his benefit. Lance does not deserve your attention, he deserves to be forgotten.
I knew about this from one of your previous videos, but I’ve also heard some stories about Levi from folks on the inside. By coincidence I got an email from Levi’s Gran Fondo this morning encouraging me to sign up. (I rode in it a couple times when it first started) I was like, “F- Levi, I’m not doing your ride.” But to be clear that sentiment goes double for Lance. F- that guy. He more than deserves a little betrayal in his life. Drama does make the Tour more exciting; 2023 Vuelta was off charts. 2009 TdF. 1985 and ‘86 TdF: legendary drama. But the only videos about Lance I want to see are the ones that are 100% clear on his rampant cheating and what an epic A-hole the guy is.
CH, I dropped Lance that race too and came in with lead pack well ahead of the whiner! Trust me, or my names not Mutley!😅
1:24 is Deep Fake. Lance did not have a right testicle!
Great to hear that insider view & who knows what hidden dramas await for this year? Also PEDs were so common it is probably due for an end to exclusion of Armstrong's name.
OPPSSS! 😅 BOOYA!!!
2:45 That picture, right there, where are the Big guns, the leaders? No where to be seen! Sorry Chris, the 2023 Vuelta Espana was not a betrayal. A super domestique stepped out of his contracted lane, and incurred due resistance. If anything, HE betrayed HIMSELF!
Thanks for the show, Chris. I have been your fan since your Saturn years. But I don’t remember LA 😉
Thanks Chris. Love the story but Lance not so much. I was a fan, contributed to his charity etc. But his betrayal to his fans, the country and the cycling world is beyond the pale. Appreciate you tho.