Taylor Phinney

TWO-TIME SENIOR CYCLING WORLD CHAMPION
2008 OLYMPIAN


CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• 2010- UCI Track World Championships: Individual Pursuit- 1st Place
• 2010- U23 World Championships: Road Race- 3rd Place
• 2010- U23 World Time Trial Champion
• 2010- National Professional Time Trial Champion- Youngest winner ever
• 2010- Olympia’s Tour: 1st Place overall, won 4 of 7 individual stages
• 2010- U23 Paris-Roubaix- 1st Place
• 2009- UCI Track World Championships: Individual Pursuit- 1st Place, Youngest elite winner ever
• 2009- National Championships: Individual Pursuit- 1st Place
• 2009- National Points Race- 1st Place
• 2009- National Championships: Team Pursuit- 1st Place
• 2009- UCI Track World Cup: 4,000m Individual Pursuit- Gold medal- Set new U.S. Record
• 2009- UCI Track World Cup Finals (Copenhagen): 1k- Gold medal- Set new American Record
• 2008- Jr. World Championships (Cape Town, South Africa)- Gold medal
• 2008- Named to 2008 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team (Beijing, China)
• 2008- USA Cycling Olympic Team Trials (Los Angeles, CA)- Set junior world record in 3,000 meter individual pursuit race
• 2008- UCI Track Cycling World Championships (Manchester, England)- Set junior world record in 3,000 meeter track pursuit
• 2008- UCI World Cup Championships (Los Angeles)- 1st Place
• 2007- National Championship: Track, Pursuit, Elite- 1st Place
• 2007- Junior World Championship: Road, ITT (Mexico)- 1st Place
• 2006- Junior National Championship: Cylo-cross (USA)- 3rd Place


BACKGROUND

Taylor Phinney is considered one of USA Cycling’s brightest hopes for the future and is a strong medal contender for London 2012. Taylor is a five-time World Champion and has earned nine medals at the World Championships as a Junior, U23 and Elite competitor.

Following a January ’08 World Cup win, at the March 2008 time trials in Manchester, England, Phinney landed himself a spot on the 2008 Olympic Cycling team to compete in Beijing, China.

In 2009, Taylor earned a Gold medal and set a new American record in both the UCI Track World Cup 4,000m Individual Pursuit, and in the 1k finals. He also won the Gold at both the 2009 and 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Taylor followed up his Gold medal at the 2010 World Championships with a Bronze medal in the U23 World Cycling Championships Road Race just two days later. Taylor is the youngest Elite World Champion ever (2009 in the Individual Pursuit) and the youngest U.S. Pro Champion in the Road Race Time Trial.

Affectionately known as “Mini Phinney,” racing is in his DNA. Taylor is the son of former professional cyclist Davis Phinney, the first American to win a stage of the Tour de France, Olympic bronze medalist and elite pro rider for two decades, and Connie Carpenter, one of just a handful of two-sport Olympians, having first competed at the 1972 Winter Games in speedskating, and later at the 1984 Summer Games as a cyclist where she won the gold medal during the first-ever Olympic women’s cycling event.

Taylor’s goal is to medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. He plans to determine the cycling discipline in which he will compete in late summer 2011.

His website is www.taylorphinney.com Twitter: @taylorphinney

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U.S. Cycling: Phinney Talks Title Defense

5.31.11

U.S. Cycling: Phinney Talks Title Defense

VeloNews

The headline event in the States this weekend is the USA Cycling Professional National Championships in Greenville, South Carolina. Not to be lost in the shadows, however, are the oldest races on the National Racing Calendar, the Tour of Somerville, the 40th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and the final stop on the Nature Valley Pro Ride.

Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) and Ben King (RadioShack) are the defending national time trial and road champions, respectively. Last September the Trek-Livestrong teammates stormed Greenville, surprising in both events to become the youngest U.S. national professional champs ever. (read more)

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Before Lance, There was Davis Phinney

4.7.11

Before Lance, There was Davis Phinney

Universal Sports

Most folks outside the sport of cycling don’t know the name Davis Phinney. American icon Lance Armstrong hopes that changes.

“He’s a tremendous human,” Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, said last week. “He’s legendary. I think his name sometimes gets lost in that mix of Andy Hampstens and Greg LaMonds, but I think he’s still to this day the winningest cyclist in American history.”

Twenty years ago, Phinney led the first American cycling team that competed in the Tour de France. Although LeMond, of Minnesota, won in 1986, and his teammate Hampsten, of Colorado, was fourth, they competed for a French outfit. It was Phinney’s 7-Eleven team that helped create a robust U.S. racing community that eventually led to Armstrong’s unprecedented dominance in the world’s most prestigious cycling event.

Armstrong, a cancer survivor, has a special affinity for Phinney beyond cycling. He empathizes with the man who learned six years ago that he suffers from Parkinson’s disease, the neurological condition that affects body movement. The incurable disease, usually found in those over 60, is believed to have afflicted about one million Americans. (read more)

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Phinney: ‘The only pressure I feel is pressure I put on myself’

3.14.11

Phinney: ‘The only pressure I feel is pressure I put on myself’

A conversation with Taylor Phinney: ‘The only pressure I feel is pressure I put on myself’

VeloNews

Taylor Phinney is taking it slow in his rookie pro season and that’s just the way BMC wants it.  The 21-year-old has been hampered by a knee injury and has only raced the Tour of Oman so far this year. Phinney has been recovering and BMC team officials told VeloNews that a decision will be made this weekend on his upcoming racing schedule.

BMC team officials have said from the start that they don’t want to put too much pressure on Phinney, especially in light of the huge media and fan expectations thrust upon him. In an interview with VeloNews earlier this year, Phinney said the only pressure he feels is what he puts upon himself. Here’s what Phinney had to say about why he chose BMC and what his plans are for the 2012 London Olympic Games:

VeloNews: John Lelangue told us that the team will not put any pressure on you in your rookie year, but it seems like you’re putting pressure on yourself?

Taylor Phinney: John Lelangue and all the directors have been trying to hold me back and not let me get too excited. It’s easy for me to get too excited, and train too hard, and do the wrong things, they’re good at holding me where I need to be. We have Max Sciandri, who’s the director of the young guys. We live in Lucca, Italy; he’s been taking care of us. It’s a great support structure. I know if anything goes wrong, the guys on the team are the ones I can trust. I am very excited to make this next step. I know at least the team is not putting pressure on me to do anything huge these first couple of years. I am going to be putting some pressure on myself to do something special. It’s nice to have a team dynamic where they’re telling me to ‘take your time; we need to develop you into a rider who can be at your best.’

VN: There are a lot of expectations about you, how do you handle that?

TP: It’s an interesting aspect of just being me. There’s a lot of talk of the next big ‘whoever.’ All I can say to that is that I am completely different than any other rider. Everyone is different. I am going to do my best to be the best Taylor Phinney who’s ever ridden a bike. There is outside pressure, but the only pressure I feel is pressure I put on myself. That is the biggest motivator for me. As long as I can go out and achieve my goals and make myself happy, be content with what I have achieved, I can be happy.

VN: What is your top goal for your rookie season?

TP: The big goal is just to learn from the big wealth of knowledge that Team BMC can provide me. At the same time, any sort of prologue or time trial, try to be out there and see if I can pull out a win. Or if it comes down to a sprint situation, then if I am the selected sprinter at that race, I will do my best to be up, top-10, top-5, maybe for the win. It’s really just doing what the team tells me. (read more)

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Phinney Voted Cyclingnews Male Track Rider of the Year

2.22.11

Phinney Voted Cyclingnews Male Track Rider of the Year

CyclingNews

Taylor Phinney may have spent the least amount of time on the track this year as any of his competitors in the best male track rider category, but Cyclingnews readers resoundingly rewarded the 20-year-old phenom with his first-ever Reader Poll award. The talented American earned 6,798 votes to top runner-up Chris Hoy by 2,735.

At the UCI Track World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, the then 19-year-old Phinney won his second consecutive rainbow-striped jersey in the 4,000m individual pursuit. Winning a world championship, much less attempting back-to-back victories, is never an easy endeavor as Phinney faced stiff competition from New Zealand’s Jesse Sergent, his Trek-Livestrong teammate on the road, as well as Australia’s Jack Bobridge, who clocked the second fastest 4,000m pursuit time in history (4:14.427) en route to an Australian national championship in early February, a month and a half prior to the Worlds.

“I came here with the aim of defending my title, so it is really unbelievable to win,” Phinney said in Copenhagen. “It took a lot of effort, but it was worth it. The crowd was great, everybody cheering – it was awesome, that is all I can ask for.” (read more)

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Boulder`s Phinney to Debut in Oman

2.22.11

Boulder`s Phinney to Debut in Oman

U.S. Olympian and reigning world individual-pursuit champion Taylor Phinney will make his professional cycling debut next week in the Tour (read more)

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