Now in its 19th year, the Redlands Classic has just shifted its schedule and is no longer the season-opening NRC stage race. More changes are on the way, too, as next year it is set to merge with Sea Otter next year to form the two-week UCI “American Cycling Classic.” But in a lot of people’s books, this race is already a true “classic.”

There’s no shortage of good stories at Redlands, and this year, the big story is the combined firepower of Saturn’s Tom Danielson and Chris Horner. With Danielson winning in Langkawi and Pomona, Horner taking McLane and Solano, and plenty of climbing at Redlands to suit them both, might we expect to see an internal struggle for the right to take Redlands?

As evidenced by a few carefully chosen questions, a handheld micro-recorder, and your standard word processor, sometimes all it takes is an open ear. Let’s listen in:

Tom Danielson, Saturn, before his time trial, on his relationship with teammate Chris Horner:

“The strategy for us is just to try and win the race, and whoever wins the race wins the race. Obviously he’s riding really well, and I think my form is good as well, but if it’s not quite there, it’s not a problem. We’ve got a lot of options. If both of us are riding well, if Nathan’s riding well, when we get to Oak Glen, there’s Roland with three of us, what’s he going to do? We’re going to use every option possible, and the main goal is just to get a Saturn jersey on the podium at the end.

“Chris is an inspiration to me, and I’m his apprentice. At Pomona, I was the one leading the race, but he was the one making the call. I feel like I’m just growing so much being around him. He’s definitely the smartest guy out there. He can read any situation; he can make any assessment during the race, on-the-spot judgment, and get the job done. I’m just really happy to be associated with him, to be around him and to learn from him. Someday I’m hoping to make the same judgments that he makes. This is his time of year. My time of year was earlier than this, and then again later in the year. I’ll be happy if he wins, and I’m sure he’ll be happy if I win.”

Chris Horner, before his time trial, on his good form, and his new role on Saturn:

“Yeah, it’s good form, but you need to start out right from day one. Then there’s some tactics involved that have to play around some. It’s a little easier to predict when you’re on Prime [Alliance] and they’re telling everyone that you’re the guy, and you show up on Saturn and we’ve got five guys that can win it here. We get the right move up the road, and we’re not going to chase it down, if we’ve got a guy that can do the job up there, there’s no reason to chase it down.

“It’s not so much work for the team. Last year the whole team would back me up 100 percent, and here the whole team will back me up 100 percent, but there’s still tactics involved, you know? If Nathan goes up the road with no climbers, you know he’s going to outclimb them all, so why are we going to chase it? If Danielson gets up the road in a break, it doesn’t matter if he has climbers; he’s still going to outclimb them all. There’s more tactics involved this year.

Horner, before his time trial, on feeling any pressure to defend his title:

“Nah, no pressure. I absolutely want to go ahead and take the win, there’s no doubt about that.”

“I definitely believe Danielson and I are the two favorite teams here. Roland’s definitely capable of winning; it’s just whether or not he’s got the right team, and does the right tactics. If you don’t have the right team, the tactics are hard to play.

Horner, after his second-place time trial finish, and Saturn’s sweep:

“I forgot to take off my jersey, it was still covering my skinsuit and my number, and I had an Allen wrench still in the pocket. No reason to be dragging around an Allen wrench.” “Everyone keeps asking if there’s pressure to defend, but really there’s no pressure, I mean, you put that kind of pressure on yourself to begin with because you want to win, but what this [podium sweep] has done is made it easy for our team to cover moves and then have someone up there that’s dangerous regardless. We’ve got three guys now they have to drop on the climb. They can’t just get rid of one, they’ve got to drop all three of us.

Danielson, after his third-place time trial finish:

“I wasn’t that happy with my ride. To hear my time at the end made things better. If you were to ask me at the top if I’d had a good ride, I would have said, ‘No.’ I don’t know the course very well, and I’m not an experienced time trialist. I had a lot of problems with my head early on. It’s such a short race, every second counts, and I just sort of cracked in the first half. You feel like you’re not riding well, but you really are, so no matter if you are riding well or if you’re not, you need to be in the mindset that you are. It wasn’t until I’d passed four people that I thought, ‘Well, maybe I am riding well,’ and then I really punched it. I think my strength is in the longer time trial, because I make up in the end, but here there wasn’t any room to make up.”

HealthNet’s Mike Sayers, former Mercury teammate of both Horner (2001) and Danielson (2002):

“Tom is still learning a lot, and Horner’s definitely a good instructor-teacher, but I think Horner, when he’s got the form he has now, where he can pretty much win at will, he’s going to ride for himself a little bit. I don’t see anybody beating Horner. I just don’t see it. He’s his own team. He could basically be ‘Team Horner’ and he would be fine.”