Taylor Phinney isn`t a stranger to the top step of the podium at Paris-Roubaix, having won the espoirs version in 2009 and 2010, but the 28-year-old EF Education First rider`s eighth place last year in the elite race has him licking his lips for another shot this year. Asked if he was focusing his early season on a build-up for the race, the Boulder, Colorado, native had a succinct answer. `100 per cent,` Phinney told Cyclingnews before the start of stage 2 at the Tour Colombia 2.1, where he`s riding in support of Rigoberto Urán and Dani Martinez.ADVERTISEMENT `My next race is Het Nieuwsblad, so I`m going right into it, right into Belgium, and I`m excited,` Phinney said. `Everybody says this every year, but I think I`m coming into this year, at least for me personally, much more comfortable with where I am and what I`m doing.` Phinney joined EF Education First in 2017 after six years with BMC Racing and a near-career-ending injury in 2014. Jonathan Vaughters` Slipstream program has been a good fit for Phinney, whose free spirit has been allowed to flourish with his new team. The freedom the team has given Phinney this year in training shows the confidence Vaughters and EF have in him. `The team has given me a lot of freedom as far as being able to curate my own training program and not riding me super hard on uploading to Training Peaks,` he said. `They`ve put some trust in me to be able to do what I need to do and arrive at the races in the form that I need to arrive at, and that`s been really liberating to me mentally. So, I feel happy.`
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
|
