Follows up Tour de l’Avenir prologue win with national title
Team RadioShack’s Taylor Phinney took out his elder teammate Levi Leipheimer in the USA Cycling Pro Championships time trial today, to take a national title as a professional on the road for the first time in his career. The 20 year old phenom bested the man sixteen years his senior by a scant 14 hundredths of a second, to take over the four-year rein of Garmin-Transitions’ David Zabriskie, who didn’t take the start. Jelly Belly’s Bernard Van Ulden finished the day in 42 minutes and 14 seconds, enough to snare third for the second year in a row.
Phinney, who was taking part in the event for the first time, started the day just before Leipheimer to make the pair the final starters. By the time he finished the first of three laps, Phinney had already set a course lap record with a time of 13:26:24. Leipheimer came through the mark having already conceded 15 seconds to the young world pursuit champion.
The next time around Leipheimer had made up more than half of Phinney’s advantage, with only 8 seconds separating the teammates. Phinney came through the finish to unseat the best time of Van Ulden, with a mark of 41 minutes and 2 seconds. Three minutes later Leipheimer crossed the finish line to stop the clock with the same time. Anticipation grew as the officials went to the clock and revealed Phinney as the winner, a victory that will certainly help with the ongoing negotiations for his destination next season.
Last year’s winning time was 39 minutes and 37 seconds, setting up a possible duel with Zabriskie in 2011.