{"id":202649,"date":"2025-10-15T20:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202649\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T20:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:56:09","slug":"in-those-days-tramadol-was-legal-and-i-was-using-it-heavily-chris-horner-empathises-with-tadej-pogacars-tour-de-france-injury-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202649\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIn those days tramadol was legal, and I was using it heavily\u201d \u2013 Chris Horner empathises with Tadej Pogacar\u2019s Tour de France injury struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cThe day after Ventoux I had knee problems, and I started doubting whether I\u2019d even be able to continue,\u201d Pogacar said earlier this month on the Tour 202 podcast<\/a>. \u201cMy body was in shock. I didn\u2019t feel great.\u201dA crash, a knee, and a tactical shift<\/p>\n

Horner pointed to the turning point: Pogacar\u2019s late crash on stage 11. \u201cHe overlapped wheels with a Uno-X rider, slid out to the left side, hit the island, jumped back up and got on his bike,\u201d Horner recalled. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that caused the problem \u2014 we don\u2019t even know which knee it was \u2014 but when you hit the hip hard like that, your alignment can shift. Then you\u2019ve got thousands upon thousands of pedal strokes, and something\u2019s going to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pain, according to Pogacar, appeared after stage 16 to Mont Ventoux. From that point on, the UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a> leader appeared more subdued, both on the bike and in interviews. His attacking instincts \u2014 so often the hallmark of his racing style \u2014 were replaced by cold calculation.\u201cThis is the more educated, adult experience now that Pogacar is coming into,\u201d Horner said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t get rid of Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> straight away, you don\u2019t want to lose time to him either. So he raced wisely. He backed off the throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

That approach was visible on stages 18 and 19, where Ben O\u2019Connor and Thymen Arensman took memorable victories while Pogacar sat tight, defending rather than destroying. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t boredom,\u201d Horner insisted. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a lack of motivation. What we were watching was a rider in pain, protecting his GC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour body just absorbs everything\u201d<\/p>\n

In his analysis, Horner lingered on an often overlooked side effect of injury: water weight retention. \u201cWhenever your body goes into trauma, it always gains weight,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019ve been in hospital after crashes where I didn\u2019t eat for a week and came out seven or eight pounds heavier.\u201d<\/p>\n

That extra weight, even a kilo or two, can blunt a rider\u2019s edge in the final week of a Grand Tour. \u201cInstead of losing weight as the race goes on, like you normally would, you\u2019re gaining it,\u201d Horner said. \u201cEvery little bit counts when you\u2019re climbing Ventoux or the Loze.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner spoke openly about his own experiences with tramadol during the 2009 Tour of California after crashing on his left knee. \u201cI was taking it aggressively to get through every stage,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was clear \u2014 I was gaining weight. I could see it day after day. I told my team-mates: don\u2019t wait for me on Mount Palomar. My form had just dropped away.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t accusing Pogacar of taking any medication, but the underlying physiological impact of pain and trauma is the same. \u201cWhether it\u2019s from injury alone or medication, that water weight retention is real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A champion\u2019s honesty<\/p>\n

For Horner, Pogacar\u2019s willingness to reveal the injury matters. \u201cI love the article. I love how Pogacar is honest about the knee injury,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gives everyone a clearer picture of why he raced the way he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar\u2019s resilience also puts his achievement in sharper focus. He didn\u2019t just win the Tour; he did it through discomfort, in the cold, and under pressure. And when it could easily have unravelled, he held firm.<\/p>\n

The contrast with Vingegaard, his great rival, was never far from Horner\u2019s analysis. \u201cIf he\u2019d dropped out, people would be saying Jonas is the best rider in the world again,\u201d Horner noted. \u201cBut you\u2019ve got to give some adjustments for crashes, for injuries, for the stuff riders go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar ultimately went on to win Il Lombardia and the UCI Road World Championships \u2013 Men’s road race later in the year, a run of form that silenced any whispers of decline.<\/p>\n

The weight of pain, the value of perspective<\/p>\n

Horner closed his analysis with a reminder of how fine the margins are at the top of the sport. \u201cA small knee injury could have cost Pogacar the Tour,\u201d he said. \u201cIf he abandons, Jonas gets a third win, and the whole conversation shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American\u2019s frank recollections \u2014 from hospital stays to tramadol use and the invisible weight of injury \u2014 gave his words a rare weight. More than a tactical breakdown, it was a veteran\u2019s recognition of what elite riders silently carry through a Grand Tour. \u201cPogacar wasn\u2019t bored,\u201d Horner said. \u201cHe was hurting. And he still won.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe day after Ventoux I had knee problems, and I started doubting whether I\u2019d even be able…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-202649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}