St. Petersburg TimesTaylor Phinney is a prodigy and a late bloomer. He grew up in the mountains of Colorado and found his heart in the hills of France.

A teenager who got on his bicycle three years ago and rode all the way to the Olympics.”It’s been a complete surprise,” said his mother Connie Carpenter-Phinney. “Every step of the way.”

As master plans go, this one was a little haphazard. Taylor Phinney may have had every reason to turn to a career in cycling, but he had little motivation until recently.

Connie Carpenter-Phinney was a 14-year-old speed skating sensation at the 1972 Olympics before turning to cycling and winning a gold medal in 1984. His father’s name may also sound familiar. Davis Phinney won an Olympic bronze in cycling in ’84 and two years later became the first American to win a stage at the Tour de France.

It wasn’t until his parents took him to see the 2005 Tour de France that Taylor’s interest in cycling grew. Seeing the crowds, the emotion, the fervor surrounding the event was a revelation even for someone who grew up with Olympic medals in the kitchen cupboards.

“When I think back on it, I wasn’t really aware that cycling is the sport it is. To me, you rode your bike to get a sandwich or whatever,” Taylor said. “What’s really important is I chose my sport without too much influence from my parents. Obviously, I knew about their accomplishments, but they weren’t pushing me superhard to be a cyclist. I made that decision for myself.

“I realized I had the genes for it and I’d probably be pretty good at it.”

That would fall under the category of understatement. Phinney did not begin racing until 2006, and a year later, he won the Junior Road World Championships in Mexico at age 17. Suddenly, he was being called the most exciting athlete to hit the American cycling scene in years. The Mini Phinney.  A year later, Taylor qualified for the Olympics.

Posted in: Cycling, Press, Taylor Phinney |