Growing through the pain: Phinney reflects on year away from pro cycling after serious accident in Chattanooga

UnitedHealthcare professional cyclist Lucas Euser (21) and USA Cycling officials help BMC cyclist Taylor Phinney following Phinney's crash on Lookout Mountain in the 2014 USA Cycling Professional Road Championships on May 26. Euser abandoned the race to assist Phinney, who was severely injured in the accident. For his selfless actions, the United States Olympic Committee will award Euser the Jack Kelly Fair Play on Friday at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly in Chicago.
UnitedHealthcare professional cyclist Lucas Euser (21) and USA Cycling officials help BMC cyclist Taylor Phinney following Phinney's crash on Lookout Mountain in the 2014 USA Cycling Professional Road Championships on May 26. Euser abandoned the race to assist Phinney, who was severely injured in the accident. For his selfless actions, the United States Olympic Committee will award Euser the Jack Kelly Fair Play on Friday at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly in Chicago.

IF YOU GO

What: USA Cycling road race championships When: Today, women's race starts at 9 a.m.; men's race begins at 1:30. The USA Handcycling national criterium championships will be held downtown during the men's road race. Where: Start-finish line will be downtown at Market Street and M.L. King Boulevard. The course will take riders on several circuits through downtown, along the North Shore and ascents and descents of Lookout Mountain. A course change this year will take riders from downtown to Lookout Mountain along Market Street instead of down South Broad Street

What does one do when the only thing you've ever known you excel at is taken away in an instant?

That was the question Taylor Phinney faced last year as he lay in severe pain on the side of Scenic Highway on Lookout Mountain after breaking his left leg in a serious accident in the 2014 Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championships in Chattanooga.

The up-and-coming 23-year-old cyclist had won the time trial national title two days before and was descending fast when he fell and slid into a guardrail, suffering a compound fracture to his tibia and fibula.

photo Taylor Phinney looks ahead while competing at the USA Cycling pro time trial championships at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Saturday, May 24, 2014. Phinney placed first in the race.

In an instant, his life changed -- and that change continues as Phinney continues to recover at home in Colorado.

"I've definitely had an interesting year," Phinney said in a phone interview earlier this month. "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."

Phinney said despite the serious nature of the injury, he was sure he'd quickly return to racing. The weeks and months that passed proved it would be a tougher road than he imagined.

"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."

As the reality of his situation set in, Phinney began to grow as a person as well as an injured athlete.

"I've been a cyclist under salary since I was 16, and I always thought that I was pretty lucky that I never had to think about doing anything else with my life," he said. "But then here I was at 23 years old last year having to think 'Man, what else can I do and what else does have life have in store for me?' And that's what I've been exploring over the past year. What else am I interested in and what else inspires me and I'm passionate about.

"That's a really healthy thing to do because a lot of athletes -- especially young phenom-type athletes -- sort of give away their youth to the sport. Then they are so afraid to leave because that's all you know."

Phinney took up flying and is working on earning his pilot's license, and he's discovered a passion for painting to develop his artistic side and keep his mind busy during the long months of recovery.

"I'm creating a lot of my own art, which is kind of weird and fun," he said. "It's turned into a pretty big side of who I am now. There's other side projects and relationships that I've been able to nurture with people in my life, from family to old friends."

The accident caused some controversy as a fan's photo showed a race official's motorcycle in the road where Phinney and Lucas Euser crashed, calling the safety of the course into question.

Micah Rice, USA Cycling's vice president of national events, talked about safety this past week.

"We did review the incident, and there will be hay bales on that corner this year, so we have taken that precaution with that particular corner," Rice said. "It's a great smooth road, and it really wasn't a course issue. It was a tragic accident. People are going really hard and traveling really fast, and accidents happen."

With a year of reflection, Phinney has begun to put the incident behind him. He continues to build strength in hopes of returning to cycling later this summer, but he also counts his blessings.

"There's no way that I can go back and change any of it, and I think I actually got out of it pretty lucky," he said. "It could have been better the way the crash went and the injuries, but it could have been a lot worse. I could have hit my back or I could have hit my head."

photo Taylor Phinney speaks during a press conference at Miller Plaza kicking off the 2014 Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and TT National Championships.

This morning, 155 cyclists -- the best American men and women in the sport -- will again line up and compete for the national road race championship. The women will race 69.3 miles and the men will travel 111.4 on a course that takes multiple loops through downtown, along the North Shore and up and down Lookout Mountain on the same stretch of road where Phinney crashed a year ago.

Euser, the other rider involved that day, has struggled mentally with what he saw when he stayed with Phinney and kept him calm until medical help arrived -- an act that earned Euser the Jack Kelly Fair Play Award from the United States Olympic Committee.

"It's been difficult to get the accident out of my head," Euser said by email this weekend. "I think it made me more cautious, which is not what you want to be if you ride a bike for a living. But I've really worked at getting things together, and I've had people around me who encouraged me to get help. It made a difference."

But Euser is back in Chattanooga to race today, and the UnitedHealthcare pro cyclist is ready to face the memories and overcome the ghosts of last Memorial Day's tragedy -- and he's ready to compete.

"I've been looking forward to going back for 51 weeks; I am going to create a new memory," he said. "I think once that first mile is out of the way, I'll feel relieved and ready to go. But I am not afraid. My goal, like every race, is to win."

And don't count Phinney out yet either. While his year of healing and personal growth has led to developing new passions away from the bike, he's not ready to give up on his cycling career just yet. He has a better sense of who he is as a person, has become a better friend and has some idea of where life can be beyond being a professional athlete.

But he still plans on winning some bike races at the top level of the sport as well.

"There's still that fire and ambition to win," Phinney said. "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."

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