Chris Horner content with new role at the Tour de France 2012
Chris Horner of Team RadioShack-Nissan was initially not included in the long list of the team for the Tour de France 2012.
It is believed that the American’s non-participation from the Tour de Suisse was the main reason behind his exclusion from the Tour list initially.
The team finally included Horner in the side to mark his sixth appearance at the three-day race and has been given a totally different role by the management.
“Yesterday, Fränk and I weren't dropped. We were... a bit too far to the back. It's true that I lost time but that's no longer an issue since my role in the team completely changed,” Chris told Cyclingnews.
“I used to be a rider for the general classification but now I'm in a supportive role".
Team RadioShack-Nissan’s selection for the Tour experienced a lot of setbacks and even Jakob Fuglsang has failed to make through the final nine.
Fuglsang was expected to lead the team at the Giro d’Italia but he was not fit enough to ride the first Grand Tour race of the season.
Fuglsang is looking for a different team to continue his 2013 season and has already started negotiating with Team Saxo Bank which is believe to be the main reason behind his exclusion from the Tour squad.
The Luxembourg team has also announced that the cyclist will not ride any World Tour race in the remaining part of the season.
Despite a rough start to the 2012 season, Team RadioShack-Nissan has managed to secure the top spot after the stage 2 classifications.
Fabian Cancellara wins the first stage of the race and has continued his dominance in the yellow jersey for the second consecutive day.
"With Fabian Cancellara in yellow, there's a lot of work to be done. Early on in the stage I'm trying to cover the breaks”.
“We also have Andreas Klöden and Fränk Schleck as team leaders and it's also up to me to help them”.
Team Sky Procycling is leading the team’s classifications while Team RadioShack-Nissan is holding the second spot with a deficit of four seconds.
Team BMC, Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Team Garmin-Sharp occupies the third, the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
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