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On Taylor Phinney’s win at P-R …
June 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I have two things to say:
1) A Trek won a cobbled classic! (Kind of a classic, in this case.)
2) The kid’s a phenom, for sure.
I got a bit skewered in this space a few months ago when I grumbled about Taylor’s post-Olympics interview on Velonews.com, because I was annoyed that he had seemingly made such a great effort to get to the Games, but then fully admitted that he was not at his best there because he had stayed up late playing videogames. Way to throw away that chance! Also, the saga of leaving the Garmin squad without communicating with Jonathan Vaughters seemed pretty un-pro, especially since JV had given him a lot of awesome opportunities (hanging out with Magnus Backstedt, anyone?). But whatever – I’m sure that stuff happens all the time in pro racing.
He commented on my post on his Twitter page (thanks, T, I guess) and then I got slammed with a lot of poorly-spelled emails insulting me for having such a bad attitude. Thanks for the personal assaults, people. So I took down my post, and fumed for awhile about the whole thing.Mind you,
I am a 35-year-old woman, not a racer but only a fan; I am not an 18-year-old boy who has proved himself in only a few short years to be one of the best physical specimens racing a bike that our country has produced in awhile. I don’t have a competitive bone in my body and I prefer to get along with people. And I don’t know what it’s like to be a phenomenon – I am merely ordinary. (Though I do have a closetful of diplomas that I like to cite whenever I feel too ordinary.) Yes, I think he probably shouldn’t have been up late playing video games before his Olympic event. But did he win the world championships in that same event in less than a year? Yes.
So kudos to the young man. And winning Paris-Roubaix for the espoirs? Priceless. He sure does look to be developing like Fabian Cancellara, a TT specialist who is also strong on the cobbles. I look forward to seeing what he does next.
Now, let’s not forget about our other second-generation racers. I met Wayne Stetina tonight, uncle to Peter Stetina (son of Dale), and Peter sure is a hot prospect too. (I also learned all about the new electronic Dura-Ace system, but that’s for another post.)
