A year ago today, Taylor Phinney had a devastating crash in the USA Cycling Professional Road Championships. He was descending Lookout Mountain when he fell and slid into a guardrail, suffering a compound fracture to his tibia and fibula. Despite the seriousness of the crash, the BMC rider thought he would be back racing within a matter of months. However, he is still recovering.
“I’ve definitely had an interesting year,” Phinney told The Chattanooga Times. “It’s sort of flown by, which I take as a good sign. I’ve opened up a lot of different things in my life that I’m pretty thankful to have discovered and experienced. I don’t know. I’m just a different dude; a different person.”
“I had one of the doctors in Chattanooga say, ‘You will ride a bike again at some point in your life, and I want you to send a picture to me when you do,'” he said. “At the time I was just like ‘Yeah, whatever. I’ll be back racing in a couple of months.’
“But that guy knew what he was talking about and there’s been lots of times when doctors have sat me down and said I really need to consider that I might not ever be able to race again.”
Phinney is still hopeful of making a comeback though, as he said, “There’s still that fire and ambition to win. I think the main thing coming back is that I’m not going to be as afraid as I would have been to hang up the bike when that time comes. I think my time after cycling will be as exciting as being a professional cyclist, but there’s some work left to do on the cycling side first.”
