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From Rocky Mountain News, Aug 16, 2008 Phinney ousted in quarterfinals; Briton wins pursuitBy Tim Reynolds, Associated Press Originally published 05:41 a.m., August 16, 2008 BEIJING — Taylor Phinney rode his bike slowly past the Olympic medal stand, turning his head to give the podium a long look. He wasn't lamenting not reaching it this year. Instead, he was already thinking about 2012. "There's going to be a lot more Olympics in my future," the 18=year-old Boulder cyclist said. "I'll be back." With that, a stretch of 10 months that forever changed the Phinney family came to a close. The 2008 Olympic Tour de Phinney ended Saturday in Beijing, when the budding American cycling star didn't qualify for the medal round of the 4,000-meter individual pursuit. New Zealand's Hayden Roulston — a training partner this summer — beat him in their round-of-eight matchup, a day where Phinney labored to finish in 4:26.644, five seconds off his personal best. So his parents — Olympic road race champion Connie Carpenter-Phinney and bronze winner Davis Phinney, both of whom made their trips to the podium at the 1984 Los Angeles Games — will remain the only ones in their household with medals in their collection. That'll hold true for another four years, but perhaps no more than that. The Kid is already talking about the London Olympics, and his father already has a sense that things will go a bit differently four years from now. "I have been around long enough, and have been in this business of racing long enough, to take a pretty big-picture view," said Davis Phinney, a former Tour de France stage winner. "Here's what I was thinking: This is probably one of the best things that can happen to Taylor. At 18, if he'd medaled and had such ultimate success relatively easily, where do you go from that?" Here's where he's going, for now, anyway: home. Since he won USA Cycling's national championship in October in his very first track race, a surprise that sparked this Olympic odyssey, Taylor Phinney has been bouncing around the globe nonstop. He raced in Europe a half-dozen times. He raced in South Africa. China, twice. Oh, he graduated from Boulder High, too. And there was that small matter of his father, who has long battled Parkinson's disease, having brain surgery to combat the symptoms and gleaning worldwide attention. It was a phenomenal Phinney year, Olympic medal or not. "By 2012, I'm going to have everything dialed in," Taylor Phinney said. "I was so new to this, I didn't really know what I was doing. But in four years, I think I'm going to come into this as a favorite and hopefully I can live up to that. And it's not like I got slapped in the face by reality. I knew coming in here, I'd have to be on Super-A game to medal." His family and friends were back at the track Saturday, again wearing their red Taylor T-shirts and waving their flags, all of them filled with joy — not despair — when it was over. Taylor Phinney hasn't only brought his parents' athletic achievements back to the spotlight, he's also raised the sort of awareness that the Davis Phinney Foundation, which works to fund Parkinson's research, has been craving for years. There was no Olympic gold, but in Davis Phinney's eyes, this year was filled with wins. "It'll be a little bit of a relief to have some of the buzz off T for a while," Davis Phinney said. "But honestly, and I've long said this. My opinion, more than a parent but as a man with Parkinson's disease, Taylor's ascendancy and the attention he's gotten has done more for Parkinson's since Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali . . . Taylor Phinney has brought Davis Phinney out of my own shadow and into the public light in the best possible way." Taylor Phinney came to Beijing looking to get out of the opening round, which he did, qualifying seventh-fastest out of 18 racers Friday. A year ago, he wasn't even entertaining notions of competing in these Olympics. He was more concerned with things such as the trampoline in the family's backyard, his Oakley sunglasses collection and hanging out, things all kids tend to savor. But he took to the track like he was made for it, and with his DNA, he probably was. "I'm not disappointed," Phinney said. "I don't think many people thought I would even get this far, so I'm happy to do that. I was sort of confident yesterday that I could pull out a really good ride. It just didn't work out the way I wanted it to, but I've got a long ways ahead of me." Phinney's showing in Beijing was the best finish by a U.S. men's pursuit racer at an Olympics since Steve Hegg won gold in 1984, the games that were boycotted by the cycling-crazed Eastern bloc nations. "He had a great experience here," USA Cycling Olympic team leader Pat McDonough said. "He got to march in the opening, a whirlwind of going to events and seeing other sports and having fun. I kind of view that the next time around, he'll have a lot more experience under his belt. He'll be here to do business, for one reason, to win a medal. But I thought he rode great." http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/16/phinney-ousted-quarterfinals-briton-wins-pursuit/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn