Big blow to the veteran Chris Horner. His team, Airgas-Safeway, did not receive an invitation to race the 2015 edition of Amgen Tour of California. The 2013 Vuelta winner explained that he is “disappointed”, according to the Peloton Magazine website.

“I couldn’t believe it,” explained the US rider. “I don’t know what the promoters are thinking. They’ve obviously done harm to the race by not bringing me. You left the only current rider with a grand-tour résumé who was going to show up, and I’m a past champion there.”

Indeed, the Tour of California organizers published the 18 invited teams a few days ago : eight World Tour teams (Tinkoff Saxo, Trek Factory Racing, Team Cannondale Garmin, Etixx-Quick Step, BMC Racing Team, Team Sky, Team Giant Alpecin and Team LottoNL Jumbo), four Continental Pro teams (Drapac Pro Cycling, Team Novo Nordisk, UnitedHealthcare and MTN Qhubeka) and six Continental teams (Team SmartStop, Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies, Jelly Belly, Hincapie Racing Team, Axeon Cycling Team and Jamis-Hagens Berman).

“It’s one of the biggest races in the US and one I’ve won before, so I was ready to go there and I think we could have put on a big show. I don’t think they’ve ever had a domestic team win California, and I think we could have won it. It would have been something special to do it with a purely domestic team.”