American rider exhausted, but work could boost worlds prospects
After completing twelve stages of his first Grand Tour, American rider Taylor Phinney has withdrawn from the Vuelta a España. He was confirmed as pulling out of the race 95 kilometres into today’s stage.
The BMC Racing Team rider placed a strong fifth in the stage ten time trial but has otherwise been finding the going tough, as might be expected due to the fact that this is his first pro season and he is still just 21 years of age.
He finished 183rd and 172nd in the last two stages and started today third from the end of the general classification, two hours 49 minutes back. The profile of today’s 158.2 kilometre stage to Ponferrada is particularly difficult for anyone getting it tough, due to two third category climbs soon after the start, and then the first category ascents of the Alto de Folgueiras de Aigas and the Puerto de Ancares coming inside the first 100 kilometres.
Phinney wrote about the difficulties of the race in his online blog. In writing about Wednesday’s stage to the summit finish of Estación de Montaña Manzaneda, he detailed how drained he was feeling. “Something didn’t feel right on my end of things–I was pedalling, I had the right gears, we were maybe going ‘too hard’ but it should not have been too uncomfortable wattage-wise,” he wrote. “I just felt empty, drained, life-less. I was constantly wincing–I wasn’t even breathing that hard, I didn’t even feel like my legs hurt, but I could barely turn them. My body was silently screaming at me NO by completely shutting down.”
He made it to the finish, but was the final rider to cross the line.
Phinney’s big target is to aim for a medal in the world time trial championships later this month. He won the Under 23 edition last year and showed his potential in the pro event when he won the prologue in the recent Eneco Tour. Although he will be disappointed to withdraw from the Vuelta, the effort put in over the past two weeks should ensure that he is in strong shape in Copenhagen.
If all goes to plan there, his performance will justify starting the Vuelta at such a young age, and battling on as long as he did.