Taylor Phinney

Taylor Phinney

Phinney at the 2012 Paris–Roubaix
Personal information
Full name	Taylor Phinney
Born	(1990-06-27) June 27, 1990 Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Height	6 ft 5.5 in (1.97 m)[1]
Weight	82 kg (181 lb; 12.9 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	BMC Racing Team
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time Trial/Classic specialist[1]
Professional team(s)
2009–2010 2011–	Trek-Livestrong BMC Racing Team
Major wins
Grand Tours Giro d'Italia 1 individual stage (2012) One-day races and Classics Individual Pursuit World Championships (2009, 2010) National Time Trial Championships (2010)
Medal record Competitor for  United States Track cycling World Championships Gold 2009 Pruszków Individual pursuit Gold 2010 Ballerup Individual pursuit Silver 2009 Pruszków 1 km time trial Bronze 2010 Ballerup Omnium Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 2010 Melbourne/Geelong Under-23 time trial Silver 2012 Valkenburg Time trial Bronze 2010 Melbourne/Geelong Under-23 road race Competitor for BMC Racing Team Road bicycle racing World Championships Silver 2012 Valkenburg Team Time Trial
Infobox last updated on February 8, 2014

Taylor Phinney (born June 27, 1990) is an American racing cyclist who rides professionally for UCI ProTeam BMC Racing Team,^[2] specialising in time trials and one day classics on the road, and in the individual pursuit on the track.

Early life and amateur career

Phinney was born on June 27, 1990 to former professional racing cyclist Davis Phinney and former Olympic gold medal racing cyclist and speed skater Connie Carpenter-Phinney.^{[citation needed]}

Phinney started bike racing at age 15 on Team Slipstream's Junior Team. In August 2007, he won the Junior World Championships for the time trial. Since then he has competed in Nationals, World Cups and World Championships for track cycling. Phinney finished seventh in the individual pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Later that year, at the US National Track Championships, he won gold medals in the elite 1 km time trial, individual pursuit and team pursuit races.^[3]

Professional career

Trek-Livestrong (2009–2010)

On September 24, 2008, Lance Armstrong announced that Phinney had been named to the Under-23 team being organized by Armstrong.^[4] On March 26, 2009, he won the individual pursuit at the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and again at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on March 25, 2010. Phinney then switched his focus to the road, winning the Under-23 Paris Roubaix, the Olympia's Tour overall (and the first four stages), and time trials in the Tour de l'Avenir and Tour of Utah.

Phinney during the 2010 UCI Track World Championships, where he won a gold medal for the individual pursuit.

On July 29, 2010, it was announced that Phinney and teammates Jesse Sergent and Clinton Avery would ride in the Tour of Denmark for Team RadioShack,^[5] riding as stagiaires.

BMC Racing (2011–present)

Phinney competing in the 2012 Olympics time trial in London

On September 22, 2010, the BMC Racing Team announced that Phinney would become part of BMC in 2011, joining a team that included Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Alessandro Ballan.^[6] The highlights of Phinney's first season with BMC was a fourth place finish in the Eneco Tour.

Phinney started the 2012 season by helping his team win the Giro del Trentino's team time trial, where he wore the leader's jersey for a day.^[7] His early target for the 2012 season was the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia, which he duly won to wear the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa, becoming just the third American to do so following Andy Hampsten in 1988 and Christian Vande Velde in 2008. Phinney then switched his focus to the Olympic Games, targeting both the road race and time trial, where he finished fourth in both events. He would go on to win the stage 7 individual time trial of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Phinney participated in the 2012 UCI World Road Race Championships. He was part of the six man BMC team that took silver in the team time trial, and Phinney also finished second to Tony Martin in the individual event.

In the turmoil of the Lance Armstrong-USADA affair, Phinney sent a Tweet congratulating his teammate Steve Cummings for his stage win at the Tour of Beijing, saying “He [Cummings], like me, follows his own personal policy of no caffeine pills and no painkillers. Purest of the pure!”^[8] Phinney later explained his comment by stating that although legal, caffeine pills and mild painkillers were often used in the peloton during races and that some riders even crushed them and mixed them in water bottles. He stated that he was entirely against that practice, and doping in general.^[8]

On the penultimate stage of the 2013 Tirreno–Adriatico, Phinney found himself in the autobus on a tough finishing circuit, which included a climb at Sant'Elpidio a Mare with gradients reaching 27%, in heavy rain. Around thirty other riders in the group abandoned with over 100 km (62 mi) to go, but Phinney rode on alone in the hope of making the time limit, so he could compete in the next day's time trial. Ultimately, Phinney missed the cut by over ten minutes.

Palmares

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2011	2012	2013
Giro	—	155	WD
Tour	—	—	—
Vuelta	WD	—	—

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taylor Phinney.

• Official website
• Taylor Phinney profile at Cycling Archives
• Taylor Phinney on Twitter