What a July Chris Horner is having.

The professional cyclist and Bend resident wrapped up the three-week Tour de France this past Sunday. And on Saturday, just six days after his second top-15 finish at the Tour in three years, he is scheduled to represent the United States in the men’s road race at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“I feel really good,” Horner said by phone on Tuesday from his hotel outside of London, located near the southern section of the 156-mile course. “I think I exited the Tour de France probably in the best condition that I’ve left any tour. I really feel quite fresh considering I just left the Tour de France.”

Horner spent much of the Tour de France — which he ultimately finished in 13th place — riding to help RadioShack-Nissan-Trek teammates Fabian Cancellara and Haimar Zubeldia. Cancellara won the tour-opening prologue and was in possession of the leader’s yellow jersey for the first six stages, while Zubeldia finished a team-best sixth-place in the general classification standings. RadioShack also finished first in the team competition.

In this Tour de France, Horner fared much better than he had in 2011, when he crashed during the seventh stage and withdrew with various injuries. And upon returning to Bend shortly afterward, his troubles were not over, as he suffered a blood clot and was briefly hospitalized before spending the next several months on blood-thinning medications.

This time around, Horner managed to avoid a lot of trouble and emerge from the race with the second-best placing of his career. The 40-year-old Horner was ninth in the 2010 edition of the tour.

“You have to remember, it is very mentally taxing, too. It’s not just a physical effort — the Tour de France — it’s really mental, too,” Horner explained. “There’s not a lot of windows of opportunity where mentally you can really shut down and just turn off the mind and just keep pedaling the bike. You really have to be focusing what’s going on in the stage, what position you’re in, what’s coming up next on the stage during that day, and of course any kinds of dangers that might be around the corner.”

Horner spent Monday traveling and said he went for a ride of about an hour on Tuesday after his bike arrived at the hotel. He said he also expected to train for about four hours each day on Wednesday and today before another short ride on Friday. And on Saturday, he will compete in his first Olympics.

“There’s not a whole lot of downtime,” Horner noted. “But it’s probably better to have the Olympics one week after the tour versus two or three because it’s easier to keep your form from the Tour de France before the body shuts down. Maybe … by next weekend, the body wants to really shut down and go on vacation.”

Horner said he would spend most of the rest of the days leading up to the race resting and sleeping. He is currently staying in the same hotel as the other members of the U.S. men’s and women’s road cycling teams.

“There’s better training here … while we’re training on our bikes, but there’s also less distractions,” Horner said.

Horner will get to experience life in the Athletes’ Village as well, though. He said the plan was to move out of the hotel and into the village today after his training session, and he will remain there for a total of three nights. He will not, however, march in Friday night’s opening ceremony, given the proximity of the event to his race, which is scheduled to begin at 10 o’clock local time the next morning.

“None of the men’s team will attend, for sure. It would be way too taxing,” Horner said of the opening ceremonies. “It’d be a great experience, and I’d love to go do it, but you just don’t have the option. It’s not a possibility of standing five hours on your feet when you’re going to race the next day.”

Of the five-rider Team USA’s possibilities in the men’s road race, Horner said: “The U.S. team really has a lot of good cards to play. We have good cards to play if it’s a field sprint, and we have good cards to play if guys are attacking the last time on climb.” He called teammate Tyler Farrar “one of the best sprinters in the world” and also noted the form of Tejay van Garderen, who was fifth and the best young rider in this year’s Tour de France.

So Horner will toe the start line at The Mall in London on Saturday, adding another highlight to his career.

“In bike racing, you have the Tour de France and you have the Olympics, so you have two huge events back to back. And there’s really nothing that quite touches on the height of level in the sport that you can go to between doing those two. The highest level of the sport that you reach is the Tour de France and the Olympics.”

And for Horner, all in the same month.

On TV

Olympic men’s cycling road race, 5 a.m., NBC

View complete Olympics coverage at www.bendbulletin.com/olympics.