Christopher Horner was expected to ride Giro d’Italia as his first three-week event in the Lampre-Merida outfit, but a highly unfortunate collision with a car during a training ride around lake Como made all his hopes to appear in the Italian grand tour vanish. Considering serious injuries the Vuelta a Espana champion suffered in the crash his appearance at the Tour de France came as a surprise, and according to Italian media his squad is amazed by the speed of his recovery.

According to Tuttobici.web, Lampre-Merida initially didn’t expect Horner to ride the Tour de France and Italian squad is surprised that the 42-year old American managed to recover enough to hang on with French grand tour’s strongest riders on the climbs. They even go step further to suggest that inspired by his latest performances, the Italian squad is considering extending contract with last year’s Vuelta a Espana champion.

The 42-year old American didn’t comment on the latter issue, but claimed that he is yet to reach his top disposition, currently still carrying some extra pounds.

“I’m still carrying some extra pounds,” Horner told Tuttobici.web.

“It’s all in my computer. While at the Vuelta we were reaching a power output of about 450 watts before the final action kicked off, at the Tour we’re reaching 500 watts long time before Scarponi puts the hammer down and Nibali attacks. The Tour certainly has a higher level and everyone is forced to ride on their maximum here,” Horner explained the differenced between Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.