GREENVILLE, S.C. — Former cycling star Davis Phinney remembers a time, not too long ago, when he was certain his son Taylor would never ride a bike competitively.
That changed, the older Phinney said, when father and son caught the Tour de France in 2005.
“It kind of opened his eyes,” Davis Phinney said.
These days, the younger Phinney is the 20-year-old rising star of U.S. cycling, a tall, strong rider equally adept on the track and the roads. He is the reigning USA Cycling time trial champion, a title he will defend today at the national pro championships. The Boulder cyclist is also entered in Monday’s 115-mile road race as he continues a trek toward the 2012 London Olympics.
Some might have even larger aspirations for Phinney: bringing a fresh, clean face to a sport that has an image severely tarnished.
“I don’t feel a whole lot of pressure on myself. There’s only so much I can do,” he said. “All I can do is go out and do the best I can and get the results I need to get. Just focus on staying positive and keeping a good outlook on the sport.”
That’s been difficult the past week or so, ever since Lance Armstrong’s ex-teammate Tyler Hamilton told “60 Minutes” he witnessed the seven-time Tour de France winner take performance-enhancing drugs before or during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 tours while part of the U.S. Postal team. Armstrong has denied Hamilton’s claims and always maintained his innocence.
In the 2010 U.S. time trials, Phinney beat Levi Leipheimer, the 1999 champion, by 14-hundredths of a second. Phinney won the prologue of the 2010 Tour de l’Avenir and took second in the prologue of this year’s Tour of Romandie. He had four top-10 finishes in this month’s Tour of California and finished 21st in its time trial.
Leipheimer is not competing at this event, but Phinney will have a showdown with David Zabriskie, who won the Tour of California’s time trial eight days ago. The member of the Boulder-based Team Garmin-Cervelo also is a five-time national champion.
As far as the allegations against Armstrong, Phinney said: “I have no idea what went on in the past. Still hoping for the best. He’s never given me a reason to doubt him.”
Meanwhile, the head of Switzerland’s anti-doping laboratory denied claims Armstrong tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the 2001 Tour de Suisse and the results were covered up.
Martial Saugy said his Lausanne lab did find suspicious levels of the banned blood-booster EPO in four urine samples from the race Armstrong won, but he didn’t know if any belonged to Armstrong.
“The tests were not swept under the table, and it’s not true that they could have been interpreted as positive,” Saugy said.
Contador maintains Giro lead
MACUGNAGA, Italy — Paolo Tiralongo won the 129-mile 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia, while Alberto Contador extended his lead over Michele Scarponi in the overall standings by 20 seconds to 5:18.
