American struck by tendonitis after crash in Europe
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Taylor Phinney took his second consecutive pursuit title in Copenhagen.(Image credit: AFP Photo)
Trek-Livestrong's Taylor Phinney and Alex Dowsett were happy but nervous before the start.(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
Taylor Phinney shows his mix 'n' match Oakleys.(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
World pursuit champion Taylor Phinney will be unable to pursue a 4000m individual pursuit gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.(Image credit: Gerry McManus)
Taylor Phinney has been ruled out of today’s U23 Tour of Flanders with suspected tendonitis and has returned home to the USA.
Phinney was scheduled to take part in a series of U23 races this spring before returning the US for the Tour of Gila. He’ll now seek treatment for his knee at home, taking up to a week off the bike.
“I crashed last weekend in the time trial but carried on racing as it felt ok. But on Tuesday I got three hours into my ride and I couldn’t pedal with my right knee anymore,” Phinney told Cyclingnews.
Phinney had his knee assessed by a number of medical staff in Belgium, including the BMC team doctors and talked to his parents before reaching the decision to return home.
“It’s painful and uncomfortable to ride with and I don’t want to make things worse this early in the season,” he said. “I would rather go home and deal with doctors that I’m used to. I’m bummed to be missing these next three races as they’re ones I can win. But that’s how this sport goes, you can’t always control what happens.”
Phinney’s next race will be the Tour of Gila at he end of April, where it’s rumoured that Lance Armstrong, Dave Zabriskie and Tom Danielson will also ride.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
