Taylor Phinney

Taylor Phinney

Phinney at the 2016 Tour of Britain
Personal information
Full name	Taylor Phinney
Nickname	Mini Phinney[1]
Born	(1990-06-27) June 27, 1990 Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Height	1.97 m (6 ft 5 1⁄2 in)[2]
Weight	85 kg (187 lb; 13.4 st)[2]
Team information
Current team	BMC Racing Team
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time Trial specialist[2]
Professional team(s)
2009–2010	Trek–Livestrong
2011–	BMC Racing Team
Major wins
Grand Tours Giro d'Italia 1 individual stage (2012) Stage races Dubai Tour (2014) One-day races and Classics National Time Trial Championships (2010, 2014, 2016)
Medal record Representing  United States Track cycling World Championships 2009 Pruszków Individual pursuit 2010 Ballerup Individual pursuit 2009 Pruszków 1 km time trial 2010 Ballerup Omnium Road bicycle racing World Championships 2010 Melbourne/Geelong Under-23 time trial 2012 Valkenburg Time trial 2010 Melbourne/Geelong Under-23 road race Representing BMC Racing Team Road bicycle racing World Championships 2015 Richmond Team Time Trial 2012 Valkenburg Team Time Trial 2016 Doha Team Time Trial

Taylor Phinney (born June 27, 1990) is an American racing cyclist and rides professionally for UCI ProTeam BMC Racing Team.^[3] Phinney specializes in time trials as well as the individual pursuit on the track.

Early life and amateur career

Phinney was born on June 27, 1990 to former professional road cyclist and Olympic medal-winner Davis Phinney and former Olympic gold-medal-winning cyclist and speed skater Connie Carpenter-Phinney.^[4]

In 2007 at the age of 16, Phinney began racing on Team Slipstream's junior squad. Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters signed Phinney to the team before he had competed in a race, having heard word-of-mouth reports about Phinney's ability on group rides in Boulder. It was at this time that Phinney was introduced to track cycling.^[5] In August 2007, he won the World Junior Championships time trial title. Since then, Phinney has competed in National, World Cup and World Championship events for track cycling. Phinney finished seventh in the individual pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Later that year, at the U.S. National Track Championships, he won gold medals in the elite one kilometer time trial, individual pursuit and team pursuit races.^[6]

Professional career

Trek-Livestrong (2009–2010)

On September 24, 2008, Lance Armstrong announced that Phinney had made the under-23 team, which was organized by the group that managed Armstrong's Team RadioShack, Trek-Livestrong.^[7] On March 26, 2009, Phinney 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 Paris–Roubaix Espoirs, the Olympia's Tour overall, in addition to the first four stages and time trials in 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,^[8] 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.^[9] The highlight 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.^[10] 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 the road race and time trial, where he finished fourth in each event. He would go on to win the stage-seven 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. Phinney also finished second to Tony Martin in the individual event, missing out on becoming World Champion by five seconds.

Amidst 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!”^[11] 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.^[11]

On the penultimate, or second-to-last, stage of the 2013 Tirreno–Adriatico, in heavy rain, Phinney found himself well in arrears of the leaders on a tough finishing circuit, which included a climb at Sant'Elpidio a Mare with gradients reaching 27 percent. Around 30 other riders in the group abandoned the race with over 100 kilometers (62 miles) to go, but Phinney rode on alone in the hope of making the time limit, so he could compete in the final day's time trial. Ultimately, Phinney missed the time limit by over ten minutes.

In the early part of the 2014 season, Phinney won the inaugural Dubai Tour after winning the opening time-trial. In May, Phinney won a stage of the Tour of California. With more than 23 kilometers to the finish, Phinney broke away from a reduced peloton and won by 12 seconds. Soon after, Phinney was victorious for a second time at the United States National Time Trial Championships. Two days later, at the United States National Road Race Championships, Phinney suffered a career-threatening crash after sliding into a guard-rail. He was attempting to avoid a motorcycle on the descent of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. His injuries—a compound fracture to his tibia and severed patellar tendon—required surgery. Phinney never wore his national jersey as he remained out of action for a year, having initially been given a six-to-eight-week recovery period.^[4][12][13]

At the end of 2015, Phinney participated in "Thereabouts 2," with Angus Morton, Lachlan Morton and Cameron Wurf.^[14] "Thereabouts 2" was an adventure-related cycling trip from Boulder, Colorado to Moab, Utah, while attempting to realize what makes cycling so special: adventure, friendship and a lack of structure.

Phinney spent the early part of the 2016 season recovering from his injuries, making his first race appearance of the year at the Tour du Haut Var in February and subsequently racing in the spring classics before returning from Europe to his native Colorado.^[15] In May 2016 Phinney took his third national time trial title in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, beating runner-up Tom Zirbel by over a minute: Phinney expressed satisfaction with the result and his performance, hoping that it would help him secure selection for the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[16] He competed at the Olympics, but despite entering the road time trial with hopes of a medal, he finished 22nd, over five minutes behind winner Fabian Cancellara.^[17]

In September 2016 Phinney confirmed that he had agreed a two-year deal with Cannondale–Drapac from the 2017 season, with a focus on competing in the classics and aiming to race in the 2017 Tour de France.^[18]

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
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 ProCyclingStats
• Taylor Phinney profile at Cycling Archives
• Taylor Phinney on Twitter
  

UCI Road World Champions – Men's team time trial
Trade teams	2012: Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (Boonen, Chavanel, Martin, Terpstra, Vandewalle, Velits) 2013: Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (Chavanel, Kwiatkowski, Martin, Terpstra, Vandewalle, Velits) 2014: BMC Racing Team (Dennis, Dillier, Oss, Quinziato, van Garderen, Velits) 2015: BMC Racing Team (Dennis, Dillier, Küng, Oss, Phinney, Quinziato) 2016: Etixx–Quick-Step (Jungels, Kittel, Lampaert, Martin, Terpstra, Vermote)

UCI Track Cycling World Champions – Men's individual pursuit
1946: Gerard Peters 1947: Fausto Coppi 1948: Gerrit Schulte 1949: Fausto Coppi 1950–51: Antonio Bevilacqua 1952–53: Sid Patterson 1954–56: Guido Messina 1957–59: Roger Rivière 1960–61: Rudi Altig 1962: Henk Nijdam 1963: Leandro Faggin 1964: Ferdinand Bracke 1965–66: Leandro Faggin 1967: Tiemen Groen 1968: Hugh Porter 1969: Ferdinand Bracke 1970: Hugh Porter 1971: Dirk Baert 1972–73: Hugh Porter 1974–75: Roy Schuiten 1976: Francesco Moser 1977–78: Gregor Braun 1979: Bert Oosterbosch 1980: Tony Doyle 1981–82: Alain Bondue 1983: Steele Bishop 1984–85: Hans-Henrik Ørsted 1986: Tony Doyle 1987: Hans-Henrik Ørsted 1988: Lech Piasecki 1989: Colin Sturgess 1990: Viatcheslav Ekimov 1991: Francis Moreau 1992: Mike McCarthy 1993: Graeme Obree 1994: Chris Boardman 1995: Graeme Obree 1996: Chris Boardman 1997–98: Philippe Ermenault 1999: Robert Bartko 2000: Jens Lehmann 2001: Alexander Symonenko 2002: Bradley McGee 2003: Bradley Wiggins 2004: Sergi Escobar 2005–06: Robert Bartko 2007–08: Bradley Wiggins 2009–10: Taylor Phinney 2011: Jack Bobridge 2012–13: Michael Hepburn 2014: Alex Edmondson 2015: Stefan Küng 2016: Filippo Ganna