Taylor Phinney delivers another diary entry in his usual entertaining fashion. This time he tells...
American Taylor Phinney in Denmark slayer mode. (Image credit: Taylor Phinney)
Taylor Phinney delivers another diary entry in his usual entertaining fashion. This time he tells Cyclingnews readers about his personal history with Copenhagen, Denmark, and the world cup event he attended there.
I didn't know that I had to go to the Track World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark, until about two weeks before the race. I had been hoping to qualify for World Championships just on the points I had accumulated from the Olympics and the National Championships, but after seeing where I was in the rankings following the Beijing World Cup (19th, and they only take 24), I knew that not going to Copenhagen would be a big risk in my quest for the World Championships.
So that was that. My coach called to tell me I had to go. Copenhagen, after all, had left a very sour taste in my mouth after last year's encounter.
The 2008 Track World Cup scene had unfolded just as I had wanted it to. I won the World Cup in LA, my home track, and was only one point off of winning the World Cup overall. I had enough points in both the UCI World rankings and Track World Cup overall that I had secured a spot for the Worlds in Manchester, England. It meant that going to the 2008 World Cup in Copenhagen was a trip across the pond I could miss altogether. But I was one point away from a very prestigious World Cup overall winner title, and an automatic qualification to the Olympic Games, which was what I had been gunning for the whole entire season. So, of course, I decided to go.
