The Tour de France of BETRAYAL 

Chris, I remember when Jani Brajkovič told for Slovenian television, that you were one of the best teammates. And he said, that it was thanks to you, that he won the Critérium du Dauphiné.

We regularly hear stuff third, fourth hand etc. But the reason Chris's channel is so good is that we get the inside, often untold stories direct from someone who was there, right in the thick of it, raw & zero BS. Thanks Chris!

I love these stories so much. I especially loved watching Cadel get emotional talking about how much he appreciated your work for him.

Great story! 2 things you left out that I have questions for but I think I know the answer to… 1. My guess is you wouldn’t want to repeat some of the words coming out of Lance’s mouth to your mother… 2. You and Levi probably don’t exchange Christmas cards 😂

this is simply crack for cycling fans, chris. thanks for sharing. i'm lucky enough to live in france and have been on the route for the last 10 (non-COVID) years or so. it's simply the greatest sporting event in the world. i have stories for a lifetime (including cheering you up the mountain a couple of times - gérardmer and risoul!). i'll be out there again this year for sure. thanks for stoking our passion as always.

Chris is a great storyteller

Amazing story. I watched that Tour closely and never had any idea of the internal team struggles. Levi don't look so good here, I have to say. Thanks, Chris, for that honest, fascinating behind-the-scenes look.

Thanks for another story time. Keep them coming. Very few pros will tell the stories. Your Vuelta win is still the high bar for me, and there’s nothing wrong with that👍. Eclipsing that will take something special.

Good times! Janez Brajkovič always gets praise from riders I talk with.

That got me laughing as well ... Hi Chris Horner .. It is like you suddenly realized that you were introducing yourself.

More of "Horner's Story-time" plz! I know the names of all these story characters by heart. So to hear what REALLY REALLY happened between all of them is like finally watching the "behind-the-scenes" production cut! i always wanted Brajkovic to win more, but now that I hear what a team player he was, it all makes sense. So many episodes, so little time! Thanks Chris!

The terrible part of Lance is not that he doped as a professional cyclist, Lance used those dead and dying cancer patients to hide his lies. If the truth came near, Lance would use Livestrong to put out another commercial with some children or someone whose rotting body looked pathetic enough to ask for donations. The common defense of Lance is "but look what he did for cancer" and that is a carefully crafted lie which was perpetrated. I was a Senior Leader at Livestrong and while that organization does do good things, Lance used it as a shield for his benefit. Lance does not deserve your attention, he deserves to be forgotten.

Ooops I just dropped it! Nice inside story Chris! Thanks!

Lance's picture hung on my wall for years, next to Greg's picture, until I took it down and threw it away. I wanted to forgive him, but his lack of sincere contrition made that impossible. The worst part is that he ruined the most inspiring cancer survivor story ever. Such a beautiful story and he ruined it.

Chris, you're such a great storyteller! Love hearing you share tales from the past!! Keep it coming please. Thank you!

Interesting to hear you speaking about betrayal when the biggest elephant in that room was the lead rider of your team. Will be interested to hear your perspective on that story.

I remember that stage very well. I recall hearing about some friction between Lance and Kloden after Lance's flat, because he had to wait for a wheel, but never heard about Leipheimer. That's pretty wild. Thanks Chris.

It’s no wonder that you had such a huge engine on the bike, it’s so impressive that you just don’t need to take a breath!! Keep the, coming Chris.

That time when someone asks you about the paperweight on your desk and you let them know it's the team prize from the biggest race in cycling...........

I have followed your career from the mid-90s when I had an adjunct professor at CU-Boulder who was an amateur cyclist and we got to talking about the influx of American cyclists making in-roads on to the European racing squads and the emergence of American sponsored teams being able to compete. It's great to hear the inside scoop on not just the "story behind the race" but also the peppering of race tactics within the story itself and how the drama played out on the tarmac. Bike racing is such a mystery to those who aren't familiar with its nuances, tactics and drama, but even for fans...we don't realize how much we're truly missing from within the peloton.

Gives me a better idea why Levi couldn't get on a team after his 6-month suspension.

Chris, you're one of my favorites to follow. Every time I think of TDF , of all the riders, I think of you first. Love the recaps!

Awesome story Chris! It is so interesting to hear the behind the scenes drama. Looking forward to the next one.

I knew it was storytime from the thumbnail and could not wait to listen. Story started slow but ended with a bang and did not disappoint. Put a smile on my face at the end. More of such content pls. :)

“Oops, I just dropped it…” ROFL 😂 You’re the best Chris!

Story time request 2011 Tour of California Stage 7. Final climb of Mount Baldy. You and Levi just rode everyone off your wheel. It didn’t look like you were even breathing hard. Everyone else in climbing hell behind you.

Would love to know your relationship with Lance. I know he can be difficult, but he hasn’t ever (to my knowledge) said anything negative about you. I say this because you seem like a natural fit for The Move podcast.

Didn't remember that betrayal by "bottle" (I'm sure some here remember the hilarious "animated" videos that imagined what happened behind the scenes, wish I'd saved them) but the 2009 would probably qualify as even higher stakes drama, the stage to Verbier for instance with Kloden chasing Contador for Lance !

Loved this war story! Thanks, Chris. Hope that trophy you dropped didn't get too busted up.

I'm going to take a leap of faith here... I don't see Levi sitting at your table for Thanksgiving any time soon. After Levi threw the dice, he only managed a 12th place anyhow... perhaps he learned from this.

Cracking story 👏🏻👏🏻😍😍 I’d say you have seen A TON of drama over the years!! Would you say it’s as common in ALL team nowadays?? Because it’s not often we see the likes of what happened in last years Vuelta!!!

And ultimately levi betrayed armstrong causing an unraveling of armstrong's denial of performance enhancing drugs

Chris, love the stories behind the racing. If you get the chance, see if you can do some interviews with some of your teammates going over some of these races together. I believe that this would make some great content. Keep riding.

Going back and watching the tours of my childhood I now realize how blessed I was that the late 2000s early 2010s was when I got into the TDF, 08, 09, 10, 11 were all(imo) classics with so much great drama and so many classic stages/moments

That story surprised me, I was thinking that Lance was the guy you were going to say did the betrayal... Levi is our home town hero here in Santa Rosa. He has a good reputation here

Hope you are feeling well and the lungs are good CH. Another great video, thanks!

Please don't glorify Tours with either Lance and the other dopers , and doped deniers who ruined others careers... giving your channel a rest

I guess Mr. Armstrong was not used to being the screwee rather than the screwer! LOL. Great story!!

Chris, I love your analogy about the family also about other things and as a photo journalist who has known you on and off during the years I know that your story is spot on and I also know Levi pretty well and can completely imagine this is what happened. It’s why I’ve never given any money to his grand Fondo, and in fact, well anyways, great story and stuff that are behind the scenes show us what real integrity means and we’re all just waiting for you to ride a really good book 400 pages minimum plus photos

Amazing Story. .... I can't remember what I had to eat this morning.

I can listen to Chris tell stories all day. More please, keep them coming!

Chris is a great guy who helped a monster. Not his fault for anything. I admire you to the fullest Mr. Horner. 💛💚🌲💚💛

Fun Fact- Radio Shack was the very last store to close inside the Mountain View Mall in Bend, Oregon. The Mall was open but every other business was shuttered from K-Mart all the way down to Toys R Us.

Thanks for reminding me of that GREAT race! I remember Andy said Alberto's attack when he dropped his chain "put a fire in (his) belly."

Selfishness is one thing. Yet, to throw a teammate under the bus... while on the bus, is the lowest form of conduct.

Chris! So many stories, so little time!! This is one of the things I love about cycling. Even outside of racing…often there are epic stories we all could tell because of the nature of our sport. Anyway, well done and if you’re ever near Ft. Collins, CO and you want to ride - I’m in of course!

2010 Tour was always an enigma to me. Great to hear insider perspective. Thx Chris

Lancen Armstrong was never going for his 8th tdf. Cool story but still a narcissist and a fraud in my books.

I’ll never forget other team riders constantly getting on Lance’s wheel and around him on those cobbles constantly blocking him in. Almost like they were told to do it. They’d mysteriously crash and then take forever to gather themselves. Anytime he tried to get around or actually did they would chase back and slowly surround him and slow him down.

That 2010 TDF was such a sh*t show. TOO much 'drama', and too much doping and bad actors. At least the Grand Tours are somewhat cleaned up now, with less idiot behavior in total. Still some individual knuckleheads in each one, but overall a much better product now.

great story I love the big script corrections of the tongue slips. so cute.

The 2010 TDF was amazing. I remember the neutralized stage so well because I was a few days into a bikepacking ride from Portland to Santa Barbara on my Tarmac. I stopped to eat a pizza and the shop had the stage on the TV. Just as I got my pizza Frank Schleck crashed out.

Well in todays racing, another Slovenian did a Leipheimer. Roglic didn't know that their race leader Sepp Kuss got dropped by his attack??🤔🤣

Great story! I watched Ryder Hesjedal race as a pro mountain biker before I became a pro. Very impressive watching him climb in the big front chainring up at Deer Valley, Utah! No one else was. He dominated!

Great story! Its very nice to hear you still refer to Lance as the champion.

Great story Chris. Keep the story times going. Always like your perspective and analysis.

The so called betrayal of "Bad Boy" Levi Leipheimer is a piss in the ocean compared to the systematic betrayal carried out by Lance Armstrong. Johan Bryneel is equally guilty and i get equally annoyed when i hear his name mentioned. The hours i wasted watching Lance Armstrong cheating his way to 7 victories is criminal. I should have got a refund from the ASO for my Eurosport subscription.

I'd luv to hear your story about the time when Vino needed a something maybe a teammate I can't quite remember. He was considered toxic at that point by most of the pelton, but I remember you stepping up to support him. I always respected that about you.

So good to hear you on Sergio 😉👍, unbelievable what he done in Atenas 💯

Why the hell am I just seeing this now? I never saw a notification. This is pure gold Chris. More more more

Lance doped, but so did pretty much everyone else and by that standard he should not have lost all his records and trophies. However, unlike pretty much everyone else Lance was hyper aggressive in lying about his doping and that aggression took the form of highly malignant attacks on anyone that questioned him. He was removed from the books for doping, but it was HIS actions that soiled hi reputation. It was his attacks on journalists and anyone that questioned him that warrants his exclusion from the history books. The asterisk by his name is his doing!

Always wondered what happened at that tour, got into a lot of “discussions “ with friends throughout those weeks. It was interesting listening to the “experts” talk about the tactics.

One small correction. Lance is a zero (not 7) time TDF winner.

I’ll always remember the brew we shared at Tour de Gila… 🙏🏾💯🇺🇸

Memories are coming back. There are so many doper names....

Great stuff Chris ! Love this channel

I thought this would be something about betrayal of friends and family because of lying about drug use.

Story time with Chris!! Love how you’re putting out videos everyday! We miss you! More story time!!!

This is great content, Chris! I'm sure we would all enjoy a lot more storytelling and anecdotes from the inside, and the nostalgia of it all is a strong drug too :))

I never was a levi fan...

As all your videos are, Story time videos are great. Always enjoy them and you’re an excellent story teller. This request is out of the blue, but maybe you can give a shout out in one of your videos to your old friend and mine, Peter Kendal. I’ve know Peter since 1976 and rode thousands of miles with him. Visited him on SD this past September. He still rides almost everyday and watchs all your videos. He’s 81 this month. He’d be very touched. Thanks!

I knew about this from one of your previous videos, but I’ve also heard some stories about Levi from folks on the inside. By coincidence I got an email from Levi’s Gran Fondo this morning encouraging me to sign up. (I rode in it a couple times when it first started) I was like, “F- Levi, I’m not doing your ride.” But to be clear that sentiment goes double for Lance. F- that guy. He more than deserves a little betrayal in his life. Drama does make the Tour more exciting; 2023 Vuelta was off charts. 2009 TdF. 1985 and ‘86 TdF: legendary drama. But the only videos about Lance I want to see are the ones that are 100% clear on his rampant cheating and what an epic A-hole the guy is.

That cheat is only allowed to speak in children's cancer wards and tell them what lying is until he dies. He used to tell the kids how big and bad he was when he was cheating.

You weave some fabulous tales, Chris, thanks for taking us inside the peloton and bus and Motel 6. And tell us this, did all y'all think that maybe Lance was losing it, losing the greatness and fading into a also-run? And that's life, the human experience even for champions and I saw that as a fan of motocross in the Seventies, the greats would enjoy a few years at the top, rule the school with three championships, then yield to the next up. And I get that Levi was expected to be an errand runner for the yet-to-be-uncrowned seven-time Tour champion, but wow, the Tour is on, fans around the world are cheering for the strongest to dominate the cobbles, Lance is puttering along a bumpy lane, and honestly, Levi is expected to slow down and pretend that Lance is the greatest cyclist the world has ever seen? Lance could have easily praised Levi for having the strength and stones to smoke him and then laugh about it, saying he'd pay him back the next day. And that's what fans want to see, I like characters, not stuck-up roadies who forever act like the boss with the hot sauce. 😀

Nice to see you Chris. Classics coming up!

Very interesting story Chris, thank you! This GT season will be fascinating to watch. I hope the majority of riders are clean today, but given the unreal power numbers, I’m sure some riders are using enhancements.

Great stuff Chris! Please keep these "inside baseball" stories coming. 👍👊

13:32 you can see how badly he wanted to say ‘Chesterfield’. 😂

Great story Chris. Never would have known!!! Keep up the great RU-vid work and hope you do a book someday.

I remember watching live and lance riding hard and solo in the dust after getting a fresh tire/bike. It was a heroic ride but he certainly burnt a lot of matches trying to stay with the race up the road. I listen to all of the move podcasts and they NEVER mention Levi. They are not shy about old beefs too.

Great story, Chris. A Solerism before Soler.

Chris, you are number 1 at analyzing bike racing and tactics, thank you. Lance got what he deserved, I raced against him in the 80s and what a jerk he was. I really wish you and other cyclists would come clean on what was going on behind the scenes. I think that would make for some real drama for your fans. Maybe you could set the record straight about why you missed a doping test. Also, what everyone was using during this time. It made for some epic bike racing.

Lance won the tour as many times as I did!

Keep em coming Chris! One of a kind videos!

You remember Any fist fights between teammates at a tour? Interesting insight. Thank you

Loving story time. Keep em coming please Chris.

Awesome story, it’s because of lance and you guys got me into road cycling, love that era of racing bunch of tough guys

Loved it thanks for the insight and honesty pal. Cheers

Awesome, Chris😀👍👍... Bout time for another rippin' on the Katoom vid, eh?

I know Jonas is worried about the cobbles.. I wonder if Primoz is too... I know Pogi is comfy on the cobbles.. not sure about Remco

It's weird, the finish line drop of Contador by his own teammate, and thereby go ahead of him on the GC standings is also a legendary betrayal on that same stage.

Chris, thanks for bringing your personal insight to racing. I loved the way you told this story and hope you did not break your team classification trophy when you dropped it ;)

Loving the channel Chris just found it.. your vid on bonking was excellent.. 😊 subscribed ❤ Pete 🚴🏻😃👍

I love story time and working out on the cycle-ops it makes the pain so much easier to deal with. When you have a bus full of alpha males, you will have drama, but when one of them is a liar, that is what makes it worse.

hard to hold trophies that are not really won honestly??

I love Chris Horner story time...

More drama, skulduggery and skin shown than the Game of Thrones!! Keep the stories coming and the lawyers on retainer😊

You’ve always had the best stories! ✌️

Given typical cyclist personalities, the surprising thing is not that it’s hard to get them to work together as a team - what’s amazing is that you can get enough of them to ride in the same direction at once so you can even HAVE a race….

I was watching this day in hospital. My first son was born that night.