Switching on the TV yesterday evening left me smiling. Tuning
in to one our Supersport channels here
in South Africa, the screen showed the jersey presentation of yesterday’s Vuelta
e Espana. The new overall leader was 41 year old Chris Horner, who had won the
stage on an uphill finish outlasting the more fancied overall contenders.
The guy just radiates positivity and confidence. Most of his
2013 campaign has been derailed with lingering knee issue, which has kept him
out of competition since May or June. I can’t even begin to imagine what goes
through the mind of a professional sportsman or woman who is forced into a lengthy
layoff due to injury or illness. Yet Horner has had loads of layoffs over the
years and always seems to come back stronger. And with a smile on his face. He
is certainly not afraid to make bold predictions, like in the following article
where he thinks that he can win the Vuelta. Whether he can back this up remains
to be seen but at least he has the balls to say it! A far cry from many other
bland and even monosyllabic athletes across the broad spectrum of sports, to
say the least.
We can all learn something from guys like Horner, who continues
to defy such perceived limitations as age, nationality, setbacks, cancelled contracts,
family obligations, etc. Almost a decade ago, Horner decided to risk everything
and return to the Continental cycling circuit after being totally dominant in
the domestic USA pro scene. In other words, he decided to get out of his
comfort zone, in the true sense of the term. He had already spent a few years
in Europe in the late 1990s, where he battled to adapt to the culture and
language barrier. Sometimes he didn’t even know what country he was in, trying
to pay for petrol in Belgium with French francs (pre-EU days of course)! Other
times he would get lost during training rides and take half-a-day to get home.
Stepping out of his comfort zone needs to put into proper
context: Horner sold all of his furniture and other non-essential items on ebay to fund his passage over to Europe and join
a small Spanish team. After fracturing his leg in one of his first races back
in Europe, he somehow continued to ride daily on an indoor trainer and begged
the management for a place in that year’s Tour de Suisse. He even went as far
to predict a stage win in Switzerland, which he duly achieved halfway through
the race, thus guaranteeing him a start in his maiden Le Tour. Talk about
rising to the occasion. Bear in mind that he was already in his mid-thirties at
the time, an age when many professionals retire from the peleton.
The rest as they say is history, but as anything but smooth for
the irrepressible Horner. A string of setbacks over the ensuing clearly has not
dampened his enthusiasm, which is indeed a rarity in today’s world of status
and materialism. To quote him directly: ““I love
racing! Everyone keeps asking me when I am going to retire, but I won’t do that
until I feel like I’m just suffering all day on the bike and never winning bike
races. At this moment I feel like I can keep racing forever.”
Maybe we need to take ourselves a little less seriously and
enjoy the journey, whatever that journey might be.
