Taylor Phinney wins US Pro Time Trial championship

Image 1 of 20

Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) claimed the third professional US time trial championship of his career in a dominant performance on the 42km undulating course in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The 25-year-old topped Tom Zirbel (Rally Cycling) by more than a minute, with Zirbel narrowly defeating LottoNl-Jumbo's Alexey Vermeulen by two seconds to claim silver.

"It was super difficult and I didn't really have a lot of fun," Phinney said after scraping himself off the ground following his Herculean effort. "But that's how it is with a time trial and I signed myself up for this event, so I knew what I was getting myself into. Honestly I didn't really feel very good. It was a tough mental battle the whole way. I started out super confident and then lost almost all of my confidence, and then gained it back and then lost it again, and then by the time I was on the way to the finish I had my confidence back.

"It's easy to say that now but that's what happened. I thought I was going super slow and started to get a bit down. The course was also three kilometers longer than what it was supposed to be."

Phinney last won the title in 2014, just two days before a devastating crash in the championship road race took him out of action for more than a year. He's shown that he is back on track and worthy of the Olympic selection, should the national coaches give him the nod.

Full Results