Taylor Phinney (BMC) relied on a little bit of his cycling pedigree Monday in Steamboat Springs to win stage 1 at the USA Pro Challenge, his first victory since returning to competition after severely injuring his leg more than 14 months ago.
Phinney was dropped over the final climb on the last of two circuits around the small mountain town, but he joined forces with Cannondale-Garmin's Ruben Zepuntke and UnitedHealthcare's Tanner Putt to make it back to the reduced group. Phinney called the result a "Davis Phinney Special," referring to his father's ability to claw his way back to the group after climbs and then take the sprint win.
Phinney said the initial BMC plan was not to drive the pace too hard over the climb, but like most plans in bike races, it changed as the race wore on.
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"Because nobody had started to help us; Cannondale pulled their riders from pulling, and Trek wasn't going to pull, Saxo wasn't going to pull, and I think it sort of turned into a little bit of an of an ego thing within the teams," he said. "And then the guys started going, and I was sitting on the wheels going, ‘This is really hard. I don't enjoying this. I though we weren't going to do this.'"
Phinney persevered and made it back, however, and then with his teammate Rohan Dennis up the road he was able to slide in behind the UnitedHealthcare lead out train and wait for his moment.
"I knew I didn't have the pop still to beat some of the best bunch sprinters in the group, so I just thought I'd go early," he said. "But I didn't think I was going to be able to win until maybe 100 metres to go.
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