Taylor Phinney is set to retire from pro cycling after riding his season-ending Japan Cup. He is aged 29 years and ends his career earlier than most riders.
US cyclist Phinney suffered a career-threatening injury in 2014 and while he came back and raced well, he never height the same heights as in his early years.
Having spent well over a year away from racing he appeared to develop a view that did not feature pro cycling at its centre.
Phinney blasted onto the scene back in 2012 when he won the prologue in the Giro and held the race lead for three stages.
He also took 4th in the road race and TT at the Olympics that year and won silver in the TT at the Worlds.
He won the Dubai Tour overall in 2014, two stages in the
USA Pro Challenge, a stage of
the Tour of Pologne and in the Eneco Tour as well as two stages in the Tour of
Utah and three US TT titles.
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Only two of those wins came after his crash in 2014; one US title win in 2016 and a stage in the USA Pro Challenge a year earlier.
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"It’s time to take that energy and put it into something fresh, something new, something unknown," he said of retiring.
"I’m stepping away so that I can be more true to myself, which means to make art, to make music, to create and cultivate.
"I’ve kind of had one foot in the sports pool and then one foot in the art pool, and art just won at some point."
He added he was very grateful for the opportunities cycling had given him and for all the support he had received.
"You may or may not see me in an enduro race next year," he said. "If I’m going to race anything, it’s going to be that.
"I just want to shred, you know? I was born into a cycling family, but I really fell in love with sport through freestyle skiing…
"Now I’ve sort of had this return to freestyle extreme sports through my mountain bike, and it’s… I feel like a 15-year-old again."
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