Taylor Phinney had a simple plan. The budding cycling star was going to spend four years working toward four minutes, which is about how long his final race would have taken at the 2012 London Games.
His reward was going to be Olympic gold. And now, the chance might already be gone.
Phinney said Wednesday that he’s “devastated” by a proposal the International Olympic Committee is expected to adopt next month that would remove some cycling events from the London program, including individual pursuit — the event in which the 19-year-old Boulder native is the reigning world champion.
Cycling’s international governing body decided several weeks ago to ask the IOC to add other events, part of a gender parity plan.
To allow for those, individual pursuit and points races — two track endurance events — were targeted for removal, and Phinney fears it’s already a done deal.
“Not going to lie to you: I have actually cried myself to sleep over this,” Phinney said. “Just once, but I did it.”
Individual pursuit is an iconic event in track cycling: It’s 4 kilometers (usually 16 laps around the banked wooden indoor tracks) for men, 3 kilometers (12 laps) for women, with only two competitors on the track, starting exactly opposite one another. The starter’s gun sounds, and the next four minutes or so are pure torture, racers pedaling as fast as they can without stopping.
Phinney won the world title last spring in Poland, finishing in 4 minutes, 17.6 seconds.
“To find out that a dream you had is basically being pulverized, it was tough,” Phinney said. “It’s still hard for me to think about it. It’s an Olympic gold medal that is potentially being taken away from me. Three years from now, I’m going to be better than I am now, and right now I’m the world champion.”
