Light, wiry, inexhaustible: this 41 year-old top climber is not planning on retiring in the next years. Chris Horner will keep going as long as he can and he seems to get better with age. He accomplished the highest profile result of his career by winning the 2011 Amgen Tour of California, becoming the oldest rider in history to win that race.

His promising participation at the 2011 Tour de France was short-lived after a crash took him out of the competition and out of the rest of the season. Horner bends all the stereotypes of an elite cyclist. He is animated, talkative and certainly easy to like. He has a boyish laugh, chats easily about a wide variety of topics and up to 2011 inhaled junk food like a teenager.

Despite having won 18 stage races (including Tour de Georgia and Tour of the Basque Country) in his career as professional rider, Chris Horner has been underappreciated many times. Horner’s career has often been a brutal trade between injury and success. As a team veteran he has been inspiring, motivating and influential on the careers of many riders in his teams.