Taylor Phinney’s return to competition at this week’s UCI Track World Championships was much heralded, and while neither he or the US Team Pursuit team managed to take home a medal, Phinney was rightly delighted with his performance in the Individual event held on Friday.
Phinney retired from the professional peloton prematurely in 2019, aged only 29 after a career in which he won 13 races, including a stage of the Giro d’Italia. But while he is perhaps best known as a road rider, he is no stranger to the track, and though the decision to return to international competition might have been a surprise, that he chose the velodrome as the location for that return was not.
Always a powerful rider, he excelled on the track as a younger man, winning the US national Individual Pursuit title aged only 17, before bagging a rainbow jersey winning the same event before his 20th birthday.
Back then, he set a time of 4:16.6 - this week in Shanghai he clocked 4:05.529, a massive improvement on his personal best. Although that was only good enough for eighth place, the now 36-year-old was pleased with his ride.
"Yoooo this one honestly is wild for me to wrap my head around! A PR by nearly 10s in the IP, yes yes positions, technology, etc., but damn, I’m hyped with this one!" he wrote in a post on his Instagram account.
While the Shanghai track hasn’t proved to be a particularly fast one, the Individual Pursuit has produced a new World Record, with eventual rainbow jersey, Jonathan Milan, riding a blistering 3:58.850 in qualifying on Friday morning. While that was significantly faster than Phinney’s time, the American’s ride still exceeded expectations.
"I was hoping to go under 4:10 but once I got out there the vibe was right and the track was ripping. To be top ten with this field is a huge result, something I am super proud of and have worked hard all year for. Felt sooo good to be on my own and tuck up in position and find my rhythm.
"When I saw the start list yesterday and they had me tucked between [Filippo] Ganna and Milan in the first heats I’m not gonna lie I felt some weight on my chest. Even before the start, I had no modern reference for going this fast and competing at this level so I figured it could either go alright or I should be braced for the worst.
"I held steady at 15.0 laps after starting a bit hot and only started to come undone in the last two laps… I’m so inspired for more and beyond grateful to my mentor Tim Decker for getting me back to this point in just 10 months time.
"To watch Jonathan Milan rip a world record right after my ride was cherry on top of the experience for me. To see it done, just after feeling it…I want it all baby let’s go! Lemon still has juice to squeeze."
At the opposite end of his cycling career, Ashlin Barry provided the US team with its best result in the Individual Pursuit, the 19-year-old finishing in fifth in a time of 4:02.304 and providing a fine follow up to his rainbow jersey in the under 23 Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships.
Riding alongside Grant Koontz and Anders Johnson, Barry and Phinney finished seventh in the Team Pursuit earlier in the week, and the country have won only one medal so far, Megan Jastrab finishing third in the women’s Elimination race.
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