Taylor Phinney wins U23 time-trial
American cyclist Taylor Phinney is the first new World Champion. The 2010 UCI Road World Championships kicked off on Wednesday with the Under-23 Men’s time-trial competition in Geelong, Australia, where Phinney narrowly defeated a strong showing by local
favourite Luke Durbridge.
“I couldn’t ask for more than to come here and win the time trial,” said Phinney. “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 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.”
20-year-old Phinney finished two laps of the 15.9km circuit 1.9 seconds faster than Durbridge, with Germany’s Marcel Kittle in third, 22 seconds back. The route included two climbs, one technical descent and a bridge crossing. Durbridge set the leading time
early in the day, as the seventh of 41 riders, but suffered in a rain squall in his second lap.
"To come pretty close to the win in my home Worlds, 1.9 seconds, I am pretty stoked anyway,” said the Australian runner-up. “The win would have been nice but it was not to be. But hey, I have got next year and bigger things to come hopefully, so I am pretty
stoked.”
Durbridge has match the distinction shared by Fabian Cancellara of winning the silver medal in his first world under-23 time-trial championship and has broken Cancellara’s record as the youngest rider to ever appear on the podium. Phinney had already clocked
into second place by the time he began his second lap, and the long downhill finish is where he squeezed past the Australian.
"I had heard that Durbridge went out a little bit too hard and his second lap was considerably slower than his first lap, so I was okay coming through the first lap coming in a bit slower than him,” said Phinney. “I just knew that I had to keep my pace.
In that first lap I was definitely trying to conserve but once I got into the second lap I was pretty much giving it everything I had.”
This is Phinney’s fourth world champion title, most of those won in track racing. The American rode for RadioShack’s feeder team Trek-Livestrong this year, but he took a multiple-year contract offered by the BMC-Racing Team and will compete in the ProTour
next year.
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