Formative families in cycling: Taylor Phinney's parents are cycling pioneers
TOUR Online
· 02.12.2023
Taylor Phinney's path into cycling was basically a foregone conclusion. His father, Davis Phinney, was the sprint star of the American team 7-Eleven in the 1980s. Her mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, won the premiere of the women's road race at the 1984 Olympic Games. She had previously pursued a career as a speed skater and made it all the way to the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo before later switching to road cycling.
But despite a strong family background in cycling, Taylor Phinney initially focussed on football. It wasn't until a visit to the Tour de France in 2005 at the age of 15 that his priorities changed - and it quickly became apparent that Phinney had his parents' cycling genes. In 2007, he won the junior world title in the individual time trial and in 2009 and 2010 he won the elite world title in the single pursuit on the track.
Davis Phinney develops Parkinson's disease
Phinney also showed his talent on the road by winning the U23 version of Paris-Roubaix in 2009. Taylor Phinney was quickly recognised as the next big thing in US cycling. However, the Phinney family history is one of misfortune.
His father Davis Phinney was notorious for his daredevil riding style as a sprinter. In his career from 1981 to 1993, he won over 300 races, most of them in the USA, but some in Europe as well: in 1986, he was the first American to win a stage at the Tour de France, and in 1987 he took another stage at the Tour of France. In 1984, he also secured bronze in the team time trial at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. However, at the age of 40, Davis Phinney was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In 2004, he founded the Davis Phinney Foundation.
Taylor Phinney's sporting career came to an abrupt end in 2014 with a complicated leg fracture following a crash in the US Road Championship. It was a year before he returned to racing. By then, he had achieved remarkable results in his first three professional years: a stage win and the pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia, a stage win at the Tour of Poland and runner-up in the individual time trial.
Taylor Phinney ends his career at the age of 29
He was only able to build on these results to a limited extent after his comeback. In 2015, he won the world team time trial title with his team BMC and a year later won the US time trial championship for the third time. He ended his career in 2019 at the age of 29. "Ultimately, I feel that my body made this decision for me. I was injured longer as a professional than I was healthy," said Phinney at the time.
However, the now 33-year-old also pursued interests outside of cycling early on, such as art and painting. He once described the forced break due to his crash in 2014 as the "best time of my life", as it brought back his old hobbies. Before that, cycling had always taken up all of his attention. Phinney is now involved in several projects as an artist and takes part in gravel races. In his private life, he has found happiness. Phinney is in a relationship with Katarzyna Niewiadoma, who came third in the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 and 2023, among others.
