Taylor Phinney with hand over heart (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Taylor Phinney won his first TTT title with BMC today(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Taylor Phinney after the medal ceremony(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The full BMC team on the podium after the successful defence of its title(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
It has been a long, difficult and emotional journey for Taylor Phinney to return to racing, but a gold medal with BMC Racing in the team time trial of the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia was a good sign that his work has paid off.
BMC Racing topped silver medalists Etixx-Quickstep by 11 seconds, with Movistar in third at 30 seconds. BMC came to the line with all six riders even though the time is taken on the fourth, while their closest competitors only finished four riders together.
Phinney said the cohesion was important. "Everybody did a smart race. When people needed to sit on, they sat on, and we stayed with six riders until really close to the end, which is very important. We knew we were up most of the race, and that's a good position to be in as last starters."
Phinney was off the bike from his crash at the US national championships in May, 2014 until the Tour of Utah this August, and very rapidly ascended to what appeared to be top form. Today's result was a confirmation that he can compete at the very highest level, and to show himself in front of his own countrymen has been an overwhelming shift.
"It's an interesting day for me. I feel like I've been on a roller coaster ride and everything's happening really quickly."
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