The Denver Post

Boulder’s Taylor Phinney is cycling way to Tour de Force. At age 18, he has competed in the Olympics. Lance Armstrong has taken him under his wing. But, it appears the best is yet to come.

The lace sleeve and bandage covered Taylor Phinney’s savaged elbow like a badge of honor. It not only held a few bits of New Mexico asphalt but also some nice memories, if a nasty fall on a bike going 35 mph can make an 18-year-old fondly reminisce.

It was at Saturday’s Tour of Gila criterium and Phinney was steeling himself to gun for the win. Then an opponent sidled up to him and asked a question. It wasn’t a young European with fire in his legs and deceit in his heart.

It was the founder and owner of Phinney’s new cycling team, a veteran with a bit of knowledge about the sport of road cycling.

“Dude,” Lance Armstrong asked Phinney, “what do you need?”

Even to Phinney, already an Olympian and the son of two Olympic medalists, that’s pretty cool. You’re called The Next Lance Armstrong and the real Lance Armstrong takes you under his wing in a race? That’s one rose you stop to smell.

“Then I eventually crashed with two laps to go and that was the end of my race,” Phinney said.

Phinney smiled when he recalled the story, sitting in his house in Boulder. Life is good. His parents, Connie and Davis, were off to their bike camp in Italy. Davis continues to win his fight with Parkinson’s disease. And Taylor is a senior world track champion. His future on the road couldn’t be brighter.

In July, Phinney finished seventh in the Olympics’ 4,000-meter pursuit. That’s not bad for the youngest cyclist in the field and one who had picked up track cycling only nine months previously. Still, Phinney was the American champion and felt he could medal. Try saying “You did great!” to an ambitious 18-year-old.

Soon afterward in September, Armstrong called their Boulder home. He was starting a new Under-23 team. He would call it the Trek Livestrong Development Team. Phinney was riding for Team Garmin-Slipstream, a perfect marriage considering its Boulder base and its signing of Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic gold medalist in his event and a road veteran who is Phinney’s hero.

But when Lance Armstrong calls, Phinney said, you don’t say, sorry, no solicitors. “I wasn’t riding my bike,” Phinney said. “I didn’t want to ride my bike. Then we get the call from Lance. He wanted me to come to Aspen to train with him. So I was like, ‘I’d better start riding my bike!’ ”

Since then, he has had the best track season of his life. After defending his American title, he won the World Cup final in Copenhagen. On March 26, Phinney’s time of 4 minutes, 15.160 seconds in Pruszkow, Poland, broke Mariano Friedick’s 13-year-old American record of 4:15.223 on his way to the world title.

Phinney became the first U.S. male world champion in the event since 1996. The London Olympics is three years away. Chris Boardman’s 1996 world mark of 4:11.114 seems even closer.

“It means a lot,” Phinney said of the world title. “That was a big goal for this year, to prove to everybody that I did have it in me to win a medal at the Olympics but maybe it wasn’t my time.”

Armstrong isn’t coaching him, but Team Livestrong’s director has almost as big a name. Axel Merckx was not only a 15-year pro, but the son of Eddy Merckx, considered the most accomplished cyclist ever. Axel said “Taylor is a very strong rider overall and has great potential to get nice results in bunch sprints. He’s really powerful and real strong in those kinds of races.”

And word is spreading. He’s no longer the son of Connie and Davis. They’re now the parents of Taylor Phinney. Just like the text message he received a while back: “I’m so proud of you buddy. — Lance.”

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