The Bulletin, Bend / Central Oregon News
NOVEMBER 22, 2009 12:51 AM
bendbulletin.com/Cascade Cycling Classic
Cyclist hits Bend on hot streak
Teen phenom Taylor Phinney is set to compete in two upcoming events
By Mark Morical / The Bulletin
Published: July 20. 2009 4:00AM PSTCyclist Taylor Phinney rides for Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong team this week.
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The last few months have been a whirlwind for Taylor Phinney.
The 19-year-old cyclist from Boulder, Colo., became the first American ever to win the Paris-Roubaix U23 race in May, after winning a world championship in track cycling’s individual pursuit in March.
Those are some prestigious accomplishments for the teenager, who last year finished seventh in the individual pursuit at the Beijing Olympics.
Luckily, Phinney is surrounded by a gaggle of high-profile cycling mentors who help him, as he says, “keep my head on straight.”
Those mentors include his parents, former world-class cyclists Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter, as well as seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and eight-time Tour rider Axel Merckx.
Merckx, the son of five-time Tour winner Eddy Merckx, is the team director for the U23 Livestrong team, for which Taylor Phinney now races.
Phinney will lead the Livestrong team, owned by Armstrong, into this week’s Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic, which runs Tuesday through Sunday in Central Oregon. He also plans to compete in the USA Cycling Elite Road National Championships in Bend next week (July 28-Aug. 2).
“I’m trying to keep my head on straight and focus on what I need to do,” Phinney says. “Having Axel, Lance, and my mom and dad as mentors is really good for me to keep my head on straight. I’ve been setting goals for myself and going out and accomplishing them.”
Phinney, 6 feet 4 inches tall and 180 pounds, trains with Armstrong in the offseason, but he was introduced to cycling by his parents. Davis Phinney is the career leader in race victories by an American, with more than 300, and he was the first American to win a road stage of the Tour de France, in 1986. Carpenter was an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in road cycling (both in 1984) and a world champion in track cycling in 1983.
Taylor began bike racing when he was 15, after trips with his father to watch the Tour de France in 2003 and 2005.
“I saw the sport up close and personal and really liked it,” Taylor reflects. “At the time I was playing soccer, but seeing the Tour was really interesting and motivating. My dad got me on a team and set me up.”
Taylor says he was immediately accepted by the cycling community because of his last name — but now he is perfectly happy to make a name for himself.
“It was nice to become Taylor Phinney instead of the ‘son of Davis and Connie Phinney,’” Taylor says. “They didn’t put any pressure on me. It’s really a perfect situation. They can spend the time back in the limelight because of me, and they’re happy. They realized this is what I want to do, and this is what they wanted me to do.”
Davis Phinney was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable neurological disorder that attacks the body’s mobility, in 2000. He has since started the Davis Phinney Foundation and gives motivational speeches to Parkinson’s patients.
Taylor notes that his father more than a year ago underwent brain surgery, a procedure that Taylor says improved some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s, which include uncontrollable tremors and slurred speech.
“That’s really helped him a lot,” Taylor says of the surgery. “It’s not a cure, but it really helps a lot.”
Driven to see his dad happy, Taylor Phinney has set lofty goals for himself. He says he was “embarrassed” by his seventh-place finish in the 2008 Olympics.
“But it definitely helped me a lot in the long run,” he explains. “It gave me even more motivation to prove myself to the cycling world. I definitely think I would not have won the world championships this year if I had done well at the Olympics. Coming up short was the best thing that could have happened. Now I’m really sort of a dominant force on the track.
“I can race on the road and then hop on the track and go as fast as anybody in the world.”
The Livestrong team was created as a project to help develop the next generation of great young cyclists. Livestrong is the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which seeks to empower those affected by cancer.
Phinney says he has grown close to his teammates on the Livestrong team.
“When you get to race with your best friends, it makes racing so much easier,” he says. “And having a guy like Axel, he’s really energizing and really motivating.”
At the Cascade Cycling Classic, Phinney says he sees himself and teammate Bjorn Selander, a strong climber, as threats to win the overall title.
“We’ll be looking toward him (Selander), and I’m pretty consistent no matter what the terrain,” Phinney says. “I always try to race and put on a show. So we’ll try to be as entertaining as possible.”
At nationals, Phinney says he will focus on the time trial, hoping to win for an automatic spot in the world championships.
He is not sure he will compete in next week’s road race, a 200-kilometer race just two days before the time trial.
“We’ll do that course (the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race) in the Cascade, so I might make my decision after that,” he says.
Phinney says his ultimate goals include winning an Olympic gold medal in track cycling and racing in the Tour de France.
“The road is so much bigger and so much more popular (than track cycling),” he says. “Doing the Tour is ultimately where I want to be. The possibilities are endless; that’s what I like about the road.
“The track is something where the best man always wins; on the road, that’s almost never the case.”
No matter where, when, or in which discipline he competes, Phinney knows he wants to keep winning bike races, just as both his dad and his mom did a generation ago.
“Winning a bike race is one of the coolest, most beautiful things in the world,” Phinney says. “Having the knack to do that over and over again is really special.”
Mark Morical can be reached at 541-383-0318 or at mmorical@bendbulletin.com.
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