Further confirmation of American’s ability
The highly talented American rider Taylor Phinney is today celebrating his fourth-ever world championship title after a victorious performance in the under 23 time trial yesterday.
“I couldn’t ask for more than to come here and win the time trial,” the jubilant 20 year old said after it was confirmed he had won. “It’s just been an incredible year.
“It’s a beautiful feeling, it was close out there and I was a little bit lucky because [Luke] Durbridge was racing in the wet, but at the end of the day it all comes down to two seconds and I’m glad to come out on top.”
Phinney pipped the Australian rider Luke Durbridge to scoop the title, covering the 31.6 kilometre course in a time of 42 minutes 50.29 seconds and winning by 1.9 seconds. The German Marcel Kittel took bronze, 22 seconds further back.
It was Phinney’s third rainbow jersey, following on from his individual pursuit titles in 2009 and earlier this year. It is also the first US gold medal in the under 23 ranks since Danny Pate won the time trial nine years ago in Lisbon, and builds on what has already been an excellent season for Phinney.
His victories include a second-successive under 23 Paris-Roubaix title, the US Elite time trial championships, the prologue of the Tour de l’Avenir, as well as stages in Le Triptyque de Monts et Châteaux, the Tour of the Gila, the Tour of Utah and the Olympias Tour. He also took the overall classification in the latter.
He has been racing as a stagiare for Team RadioShack, stepping up from the Trek-Livestrong feeder squad. Last week he signed a pro deal with the BMC Racing Team and will begin racing with the squad in 2011. Phinney is already regarded by many as one of the most exciting American talents to emerge in the sport, and yesterday’s result is simply further confirmation of that.
Durbridge is another who looks set for a glittering future, and was philosophical about missing out on gold.
“So close, but hey, you know, it’s the way it is,” he said. “I’m stoked with the silver medal, it’s my first Worlds, home Worlds, and my family is here – it’s an unreal feeling.
“When I came through I thought I’ve got so long to wait now and I’m not going to get my hopes up, but then my time just kept going and I think I had the quickest lap by anyone so it’s an unreal feeling. I think it will take a while to sink in but I’m stoked.”
He has the consolation of knowing that he is the youngest rider to ever take a medal in the under 23 category. He is 19 years 173 days old, some 33 days younger than the 2000 silver medallist Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland.
The most unlucky rider was the Briton Alex Dowsett, who confirmed this week that he will be turning pro with Team Sky next year. The Briton was quicker than Phinney early on, but his tubular rolled off on a corner and he eventually trailed in over three minutes back.
Phinney will have the chance to chase another medal in Saturday’s under 23 road race. Today, though, he’ll concentrate on getting in a recovery ride and savouring his latest triumph.
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UCI World road race championships, Geelong, Australia:
Men’s under-23 time trial:
1 Taylor Phinney (United States Of America) 31.8 kilometres in 42 mins 50.29 secs
2, Luke Durbridge (Australia) at 1.90 secs
3, Marcel Kittel (Germany) at 24.01 secs
4, Nélson Oliveira (Portugal) at 27.96 secs
5, Rohan Dennis (Australia) at 46.87 secs
6, Matteo Mammini (Italy) at 49.88 secs
7, Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) at 1 min mins 6.55 secs
8, Jesus Herrada Lopez (Spain 1 min 18.48 secs
9, Andrei Krasilnikau (Belarus) at 1 min 35.62 secs
10, Geoffrey Soupe (France) at 1 min 38.21 secs
11, Johan Le Bon (France) at 1 min 39.62 secs
12, Jakub Novak (Czech Republic) at 1 min 51.71 secs
13, Gianluca Leonardi (Italy) at 2 mins 4.33 secs
14, Arthur Van Overberghe (Belgium) at 2 mins 13.52 secs
15, Andrew Talansky (United States Of America) at 2 mins 21.59 secs
16, Benjamin King (United States Of America) at 2 mins 23.32 secs
17, Jimmi Sorensen (Denmark) at 2 mins 27.76 secs
18, Blaz Jarc (Slovenia) at 2 mins 30.13 secs
19, Javier Eduardo Gomez Pineda (Colombia) at 2 mins 33.60 secs
20, Nikita Novikov (Russian Federation) at 2 mins 35.56 secs