Taylor Phinney is targeting a return to the Tour de France after his high profile debut in 2017, and in typically maverick style is also pondering riding across Siberia later this year with fellow pro and adventurer, Gus Morton.
Phinney was one of the best known names on Jonathan Vaughters' team, now known as EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale, whose future career briefly hung in the balance after sponsorship fears almost sank the American outfit last autumn.
The Coloradan, though, kept his cool. "I'm never really that anxious anymore, after recognizing that there's so much more outside of this sport," Phinney, speaking to Cyclingnews in Girona, Spain, said. "But I wanted to give Jonathan and the team a chance to save things. I wasn't about to go anywhere else, so I just waited it out."
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Unsurprisingly perhaps, given how precarious the team's situation was, Phinney is enthused by his new sponsors.
"A lot of cycling teams are sponsored by billionaires or by sponsors with money that you don't really know where it's coming from, or lottery money. I love that we're promoting education and it runs parallel with thoughts that I've been having about going back to college when I finish racing."
The 27-year-old's spring programme includes racing in Abu Dhabi, the Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, plus all the Belgian Classics through to Paris-Roubaix. After that he will return to the United States to race in the Tour of California, before using the Tour de Suisse as his final warm-up prior to starting his second Tour de France.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/phinney-aiming-for-tour-de-france-return-after-sponsors-save-team
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