Taylor Phinney’s superb final season as an amateur rider has been capped off by the US Olympic Committee award for October, marking his achievements at the UCI world road race championship in Geelong, Australia.
The 20 year old won the under 23 time trial, following in the wheeltracks of Danny Pate in 2001, and then on October 1st he added bronze medal in the road race to that gold. Amazingly, he tied for the bronze medal with the Canadian rider Guillaume Boivin, the first time the judges had not been able to split those in podium positions.
Phinney’s achievement in the road race was the first time an American rider had won a medal in the under 23 road race and, taken alongside his time trial success, shows the versatility of the future BMC Racing Team rider.
Those medals and the USOC award follow on from a superb year. He won his second consecutive individual pursuit title at the world track championships in April, and also took a variety of wins on the road. These included the US national time trial title, the prologue of the Tour de l’Avenir, the prologue and the time trial in the Tour of Utah, the Under 23 Paris-Roubaix, four stages plus the overall classification in the Olympia Tour and a stage of the Tour of the Gila.
He is one of the most exciting talents to come out of US cycling in many years, and seems destined for a very successful future.
Phinney beat Joey Mantia (Roller Sports) and Jonathan Horton (Gymnastics) to the award. The nominees are selected by the National Governing Body for each of the sports and, once put forward, they are voted on by those governing bodies. Online voting is also an important component and the support of Phinney’s many fans was partly responsible for impressive final outcome.