Not used for sleeping, plush home-on-wheels houses dirt bike and scooter
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Horner stands in the kitchen of his RV.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Horner's RV anchors the Airgas-Safeway compound in team parking.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
It takes a big truck to pull Horner's 40-foot fifth wheel.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
All the modern accommodations in Horner's 2015 RV. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Chris Horner stands in the bedroom of the RV he takes to races.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Horner says he never leaves home without one of his motorcycles on board.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Chris Horner talks about the RV he drives to races.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Chris Horner poses for a photo on the steps of the 40-foot RV he brings to races.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Although Team Sky and Chris Froome raised some hackles at the Tour de France this year when they intended to have the team leader sleep in a motorhome rather than the hotel rooms provided by the race, Airgas-Safeway’s Chris Horner has been driving his own RV to US races all season long.
The team told Cyclingnews that Horner is not sleeping in the RV this week at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, as per the UCI rule that dictates riders stay in their assigned team lodging, so Airgas-Safeway is using Horner’s 40-foot fifth wheel trailer as the anchor for the team’s parking lot compound.
“I’ve had RVs of one sort or another, probably since 2000 or something like that,” Horner told Cyclingnews this week at the Utah start in Logan.
“So the last 15 years I always have an RV of some kind because you can literally go wherever you want. You pitch the awning, you pull out some chairs and you can train at altitude, you can train at sea level at the beach, wherever you want to be.”
Horner said the portable home is especially handy for training, as he can pull up to a friend’s house, park in the driveway and be ready to go the next morning.
“Back in the day I would train with Trent Klasna,” Horner said. “He owned three acres in California, so I would just stay at his place.”
Horner does sleep in the RV for non-UCI events when the team often stays in host housing.
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“You can mingle with the family you’re staying with and then you can go back to your home,” he said. “You can relax. You can stay with training partners, and then when you want to be on your own you can come back, flip the AC on, take a shower, put a movie on there and go to bed on the Temperpedic.
“About the only downside to having an RV is you seem to bring everything. Cause you think, ‘I’ve got space, I’m going to bring it all.”
The RV allows Horner to pack more than just his business tools. He’s also got room for a toy or two.
“I bring my dirt bikes with me and a lot of times I have my scooter with me and stuff like that because you never know when you might get to break it out and have a little fun on a day off,” he said.
“In the early days in 2000 I had a YZ 250, so you’d show up at Redlands, Solano, Sea Otter, and then when Sea Otter finished it was time to moto, so I’d break out the 250 and hit a couple tracks along the way back home. Then I’d get back home and start getting back on the bike and serious again. So you get a week of play and then back to work.”
Growing up in Missoula, Montana, Pat competed in his first bike race in 1985 at Flathead Lake. He studied English and journalism at the University of Oregon and has covered North American cycling extensively since 2009, as well as racing and teams in Europe and South America. Pat currently lives in the US outside of Portland, Oregon, with his imaginary dog Rusty.
