Last year’s surprising Vuelta a Espana champion, Chris Horner, was expected to lead Lampre-Merida in the current Giro d’Italia editio, but all his hopes were crushed in the training accident which left him with punctured lung, broken ribs and uncertain goals for the rest of 2014 season.

However, according to Lampre-Merida manager Brent Copeland, Horner managed to recover very quickly from sustained injuries, and while he has already returned to training, his participation in the Tour de Suisse can’t be ruled out.

The 42-year old American undergone the recovery period in United States, but has already returned to Europe and is due to meet with Lampre-Merida manager today in order to discuss possibilities and set new goals for the nearest future.  

“He’s back in Europe at the moment and training again. We will have a meeting with him on Friday and we’ll go from there,” Copeland told Cyclingnews.

“At the moment we’re thinking about bringing him in for the start of the Tour de Suisse in order to see what his condition is like. Then we’ll look at the possibility of Chris riding the Tour de France.”

“We’ve always known that Chris is unbelievable at recovery, perhaps it’s because of all the crashes he’s had but seriously he’s great at recovery. I didn't expect it to be so quick. The biggest problem are the ribs and if he crashes again. That’s our biggest concern at the moment, but he’s coming on and his condition is getting better and better each day.”

“If he gets through Suisse then we can start taking about the Tour in more detail. Chris also wants to see what his condition is like in racing. We have a chiropractor working him closely and I’ll see both of them together and then early next week we’ll make a final decision. Right now it’s 70-30 that Chris does Suisse.”

With or without Horner in the Italian team’s roster for the Tour de Suisse, the winner of last two editions of that event and their Tour de France GC rider Rui Costa will lead the squad in Switzerland.