Taylor hopes unlikely odyssey ends in Olympic gold

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In August, 18-year-old Taylor Phinney will compete in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit in Beijing. His unlikely odyssey has taken him from China to England to Denmark in the past year but it all started last August, with his out-of-nowhere victory at the Junior Road World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico."We thought maybe he'd finish in the top 10; when he won it, it was like opening the magic door and saying, 'Wow,'" said his mother, former Olympian Connie Carpenter-Phinney. "At that point, we realized he was going places a lot more quickly than we could've guessed. We could see the volume of traveling that was required. So we decided I would be going to all the World Cups."In October, Taylor won the U.S. elite track nationals, only a month after racing on a velodrome for the first time, then rolled to his first World Cup victory, in Los Angeles. He will compete in the "Taylor makes it fun, he keeps it fun," his mother said. But not every race has gone smoothly. In February, Phinney placed 10th in a World Cup event in Copenhagen, Denmark, and narrowly missed an automatic Olympic bid, a temporary setback that seemed overwhelming at the time."I hate to say it, but the days I remember the most are the days I had my worst races. So I could really relate to that day in Denmark," Carpenter-Phinney said. "I was really happy I was able to be there. I'm not trying to be his coach. I'm trying the best I can to be his mom. That's what I do best."If anyone can deal simultaneously with the best and worst of times, it's Carpenter-Phinney, who has experienced plenty of both. While growing up across the street from an ice rink in Madison, Wis., she developed an early passion for speedskating. She placed seventh as a 14-year-old in the 1,500 meters at the 1972 Olympics, but an ankle injury ended her career. She was a member of the NCAA championship rowing team at California, but cycling eventually consumed her life. Less than a year before the 1984 Olympics, she married Davis Phinney, a ferocious sprinter with big ambitions. If both Phinneys could win in Los Angeles, they would become the first American husband and wife in any sport to capture Olympic gold medals in separate events. Under a scorching sun on a hilly course, Carpenter-Phinney started her sprint within 200 meters of the finish in the women's road race. At the last moment she threw her bike across the finish line like a child clearing a curb, barely beating teammate Rebecca Twigg. Shortly after becoming the first U.S. cyclist to win a medal of any kind since 1912, she hurried to her husband's side, where, less than an hour later, he faded in the heat and placed fifth. Carpenter-Phinney immediately retired, determined to devote herself to her husband's career."I never looked back," said Carpenter-Phinney, 51. No longer traveling up to 200 days per year and putting in 8,000 training miles, Carpenter-Phinney did some coaching, worked on the Olympic Committee, served on the U.S. Cycling Federation board, promoted women's sports and invested in cycling-related enterprises with Davis, including the Carpenter/Phinney bike camps. During the rest of the decade, Davis continued to race throughout the world, spending much of the year on the road. His talent as a cycling analyst also earned him gigs with NBC, CBS, ABC and ESPN. But in 2000, Davis was diagnosed in 2000 with early-onset Parkinson's disease, caused by a lack of available dopamine in the brain. Slurred speech, tremors, uncontrollable twitches, impaired coordination -- these were the symptoms that persuaded him in 2002 to move his family to a small town in northern Italy, where he hoped to adapt to the illness. "It's a rather challenging disease. It's definitively degenerating over the years," Carpenter-Phinney said. In Italy, Taylor learned to speak Italian, played for a local soccer team and struggled with his father's deteriorating health. "I used to be really nervous as a kid. It might have been (because of the) move to Italy. I was always stressed over there. The school . . . the tests. It was really nerve-racking," he said. But Taylor's life changed when he watched the Tour de France for the first time, an experience that persuaded him to join the family business. "I think what's important is that I chose my sport," said Taylor. "I knew about (his parents') accomplishments. But they weren't pushing me super-hard to be a cyclist. I made that decision myself."When the family moved to Boulder, Colo. in 2005, Taylor quickly became a force on the junior cycling scene, making the leap to Pro 1-2 events last year. "I realized I had the genes and that I could be pretty good at it," he said. "I definitely have my mom's pursuit (skills) and my dad's sprinting. My dad is fast-twitch. My mom is slower twitch. I have a coach who says I'm 'all twitch.'"(Clay Latimer writes for the Rocky Mountain News at XX(at)xxx.com.)