Apr 10, 2008 9:12 am US/Mountain
Young Boulder Cyclist Ready For Olympics
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
A 17-year-old cyclist from Boulder is ready to head for the Olympics to complete for the United States. He has the right pedigree and determination to make it to the medal podium in Beijing.
Taylor Phinney is the son of two Olympic medal winners and has placed himself in international competition. The Boulder High School senior is the son of Connie Carpenter, a world champion and Olympic gold medalist, and Davis Phinney.
"They're just doing as much as they can do for me and allowing me the mental freeness of just being able to think about riding my bike," said Taylor Phinney.
Phinney won the Junior World Time Trial Championship last year and was second in the World Cup Races. He nailed a spot on the Olympic team last month in England with a person best in the pursuit and a world record for juniors.
"When I got into the world cup scene, I was kind of hoping to finish in the top 20 every single race and I got ninth in my first one and I was like 'uh, I think I can be pretty good at this,'" Phinney said.
Phinney trains at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine under the coaching of Neal Henderson.
"I'm very excited for the Olympics," Phinney said. "But, you know, it's not like the highest thing I want to accomplish in my career. I want to go to the Tour de France, I want to do all the road stuff, but I'm really excited to be a part of the Olympics at such a young age."
Taylor Phinney should be officially named to the Olympic team this spring.
His father, Davis Phinney, has successfully completed the first stage of his brain surgery to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
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