Having indicated in the buildup towards yesterday’s Elite world championship time trial that he was targeting a top five place, Taylor Phinney came up short on that goal in the 46.4 kilometre race. The 21 year old American rider covered the two laps in a time 3 minutes 52.58 seconds off that of the winner Tony Martin, netting 15th.
He was just over two and a half minutes away from the bronze medal taken by Fabian Cancellara and over a minute and a half off the fifth place of Jack Bobridge.
In other words, quite far off his targets. Phinney has made it clear that he isn’t happy with how things turned out, and vows to work harder. “En route to what I would call a mediocre 15th place, I did a whole 25 more watts AVERAGE than I did at the Vuelta Time Trial where I finished 5th,” he wrote on his personal blog today. “I certainly gave everything I had, but it was not enough.
“The Vuelta TT was a big step for me. It was the first TT of that length that I had ever done, being just shy of an hour. Yesterday was very similar, and to experience a jump of 25 watts–I could be ecstatic with that. But I am not. At the end of the day, it is not how many watts someone produces in a single day, it is how fast they go.
“While I am content to have technically gone faster, I realize that I have a lot of work I need to get done before I can be competitive at this level on such a stage.”
However while a 25 watt improvement sounds significant, what Phinney might not have considered fully is the effect of accumulated fatigue on his Vuelta TT performance. That race against the clock came on the tenth day of racing and it’s certain that he and the other riders there were fatigued starting that test.
With a race-free lead into the worlds time trial, the riders would have been much fresher yesterday and so it would be expected that they would put out more power than during the Spanish tour.
Phinney will likely assess his performance in the days ahead. Although he did increase his speed relative to the Vuelta ride, a good analysis would be to ascertain what sort of power difference should be expected when comparing a single day race to a performance midway through a Grand Tour.
That in turn will mean he can see if his training and tapering for the event was correct, or if things should have been done slightly differently.
Looking ahead, he’s determined to take positives from yesterday’s performance. He wants to use his disappointment at being ten places off his target to work hard over the next few months.
“Yesterday was a good indication that yes, I am improving, but these guys, Tony Martin in particular, are at a whole different level,” he wrote. “I know I can be up there soon as I have plenty of room to grow, I just have to put in the work and the hours. I am very motivated this winter to do everything right and come out guns blazing next year.”
He added that he hoped to perform well in Sunday’s road race, where he is aiming to help Tyler Farrar chase the rainbow jersey.
Phinney took gold and bronze at last year’s worlds, albeit at the under 23 level. He won the time trial and was joint third in the road race.