Written by Taylor Phinney
2009 will be remembered as one giant roller coaster ride and a whole series of rebounds. Some incredible high points and some really devastating lows. I’ve had some really tough luck, crashes, a lot of illness and most recently – some really bad news from the UCI Track Commission who are threatening to destroy endurance track cycling. Here’s the story.
I won the Pursuit World Championships on the track in March and set a couple of American records in the Kilo event and the Pursuit. I won some races in Europe as an Under-23, and claimed my season goal, the Under-23 Paris-Roubaix. But as I’m finding out, all that goes up, must come down. The early season racing had taken its toll; I had already broken two helmets in two painful crashes, gotten sick with severe colds several times, and raced more race days than the last three years combined. All of that, in the span of only five months.
When I returned to Boulder in the end of June just before my 19th birthday, I was coming off a peak, and heading into a couple weeks of rest. Timing your fitness is a very important part of cycling, but also incredibly difficult. So naturally, coming back from Europe on peak fitness, I didn’t want to – I couldn’t bear to – let go of it. Many cyclists will tell you, that this is not a situation you want to get yourself in, because that fitness, while it may stay for a couple more weeks – can’t last and soon, very soon – it will betray you by leaving you.
Full article here.