Competing against a star studded peloton on the queen stage of climbing, Chris Horner (RadioShack-Leopard) more than held his own against the world’s best GC riders at the Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy on Saturday.

Horner positioned himself perfectly all the way up the climb, following the wheels of team Sky as they worked at the front for Chris Froome. A terrifying attack from Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), Nibali (Astana) and Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) wreaked havoc among the select elite group, but Sky kept Froome at a steady pace in the front, never losing sight of their game plan or altering their approach. In the final km Froome saw his chance to hound down the trio and climb away to a splendid solo victory at Prati di Tivo. Chris Horner was fifth at 15-seconds and took over sixth place on the general classification.

After the stage Horner was unrestrained in his praise for the coherent performance delivered by Sky, “It all came down to the last climb,” Horner explained on the team’s website. “Sky really blew things apart. Froome was very patient when Alberto was attacking and just stayed with his teammates. His team was so strong. Then with 1km to go he put in one attack and dropped me. He was patient and calm. He just used his team perfectly; really intelligent racing. There was a big block headwind but he had two Colombians up there that stayed on the front almost the entire climb.”

Best non-Tour field

In his first race of the 2013 season, Horner was looking to test his own fitness in the early season and is pleased with his results so far against such fearsome opposition, “I’m 41 now so I know how to stay calm. If at this age you haven’t figured it out, you probably should have retired a long time ago. I’m here to be good and test my form. This race is the best quality field I’ve ever seen outside the Tour de France. It’s good. This has everyone – GC guys and sprinters. I’ll be happy within the top ten but I’m still aiming for the podium. It’s highly unlikely now with only a few climbing chances left. My days for the GC were probably made here.”

Horner currently sits in sixth place, 40 seconds off the lead.