This feature appears in the latest issue of Procycling. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.
Taylor Phinney has been extraordinary ever since he cruised into cycling’s general consciousness, aged just 17, when he took victory at the 2007 Junior World Time Trial Championship. As the cycling prodigy son of former sprinter Davis Phinney and Olympic road race champion Connie Carpenter-Phinney, his upward trajectory continued into the middle of 2014, when a Tour de France debut beckoned. However, just two days on from claiming his second national time trial title, he crashed on a descent in the road race at Chattanooga, sustaining a bad break to his left leg.
Following initial examination of his injuries, Phinney’s BMC team announced he would be back in the saddle within six to eight weeks. He pencilled in the Tour of Britain as his return race. Yet as Procycling sits down with him just prior to the 2015 edition of that same event, 12 months on, the 25-year-old has only recently retaken his place in the international peloton. Although he’s already bagged an impressive stage win at the USA Pro Challenge, he insists he is still feeling his way back into racing. His aim, he says, is to gain form for the World Time Trial Championships in Richmond [where he’d finish 12th] and, much more importantly, set himself up for the 2016 season and a shot at Olympic gold.
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But let’s leave the future for the moment and turn to something as extraordinary as his racing achievements.
Just a couple of days earlier, Phinney had told our sister title Cyclingnews that the last year was “honestly one of the best years of my life”. This was a year in which he struggled to recover from his injuries as quickly as everyone expected, ultimately ending up on the sidelines for the best part of 12 months. Athletes don’t tend to cherish such moments but Phinney, demonstrating his ability for the extraordinary, made use of the time off. His explanation of why he thrived results in an extremely unusual but fascinating conversation.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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