Three months ago Chris Horner stood on the top of the podium in Madrid and was celebrated as the winner of the Vuelta a Espana but has been unable to find a team for the coming season. Admitting that he may need to lower his price, the American is still convinced that he can win both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta despite being 42 years of age.

Chris Horner enjoyed the brightest moment of his long sporting career when he turned an otherwise injury-plagued season around with a hugely surprising win at the Vuelta a Espana. At 41 years of age, he became the oldest winner of a grand tour by a big margin despite having only raced very little due to a knee injury.

However, the last few months have been in sharp contrast to those joyful days in September. Despite being the most recent grand tour winner, the American has been unable to find a new team.

He was offered a contract by Trek which has taken over the license from his current Radioshack team but the offer didn't meet his demands. When Fernando Alonso tried to take over the Euskaltel license, he thought that he would be riding for the Spanish team but was again in limbo when the negotiations broke down.

Christmas is rapidly approaching and Horner is still jobless. Nonetheless, he continues his training and has now left his home in Bend to train under sunny conditions in San Diego.

Horner has claimed that he could easily find a team for the coming season. The problem was to find one that will pay him like a grand tour winner. He has now lowered his price but has still not signed a contract for the coming season.

“Everybody knows you dropped the price," he told Velonews. "Every pro team out there knows that. I literally think if you’re a grand tour winner, you’re worth 1.5 million [euros]. Clearly I’m not out there asking for that. I’ve got my agent out there looking for 750,000. Clearly if he can find it with a team that does the program that we like, that’s great. And If we have to take less — at some point in time I’d imagine he’d have to email the teams and say, ‘well, he’s still on the market, make us an offer.’… That’s just the way it is."

Horner may now be 42 years old but he still thinks that he can win the biggest races in the world. While he admits that the Tour de France is probably beyond his reach, he has set his sights on the other two grand tours, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta.

“I think I could win either/or,” he said. “You look at the Tour de France and it’s difficult because the time trials are just too long. I can’t make up that kind of time other places, in the mountains. It’s too hard. I’m going to lose four minutes … how do you make up four minutes?”

Keeping that in mind, it is no surprise that Horner wants to go back to Europe to do the biggest races. However, he doesn't need to ride for a ProTeam and doesn't rule out the opportunity of riding for an American continental team that does all the biggest North American races.

“There’s only a few reasons to sign with a team," he said. "It’s either love or money, or a combination of both. You’ve got to pay the bills … so you’ve got to think of something financially. So clearly it’d be nice to find a team with a lot of love, too, that wants to give you the schedule of races that I want to do. I’d like to do the ProTour races and stuff like that.

"But what I’d like to do is go back and get a shot — I wouldn’t mind doing the Giro, or Spain, for sure. If I found a Pro Continental team that did those and some of the Spanish races, too, that’d be ideal.”

Horner ended his season abruptly when he broke his ribs at the World Championships. However, he is now raring to go and feels ready to be immediately competitive if a team offers him a contract.

“I probably just need two, three weeks, or something and I’ll start to feel some really good form," he said. "Ribs are good. Legs are good. The weight’s fantastic. So I don’t think it’ll take too long to get fit."

Horner is still hopeful that he will be able to display his abilities on the biggest scene. But ff the professional teams don't show any interest, the masters rider may better be aware.

"I’ll just have to race amateur I guess for fun. … Remember, I can do masters 40-plus races," he said. "Maybe I’ll win a masters world championship like that or something. We’ll see.”