Taylor Phinney targets LA 2028 Olympics in surprise comeback: 'The old horse still has some kick'

In a post on social media on Tuesday, Phinney revealed that he had returned to training in November with encouragement from USA Cycling and coach Allen Lim. He labelled the endeavour “comeback 3000,” and he indicated that he would line out in World Cup events in the coming season.

“The old horse still has some kick,” Phinney wrote. “What started as a return to gravel racing has delicately snowballed into a full-on Olympic dream. It’s been super fun and rewarding to find the love for training and ripping high speeds again over the past few months. Huge thank you to USA Cycling and especially Allen Lim for planting this seed of an idea in my brain. 

“I laughed it off at first, but with encouragement from wifey Kasia Niewiadoma the seed started to grow and before I knew it all, I could think of was closing this final loop in my cycling career.”

Phinney has considerable pedigree at the Olympic Games. He was still a junior when he placed seventh in the individual pursuit at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, while he placed fourth in both the time trial and the road race in London four years later. He also competed in Rio in 2016.

His mother Connie Carpenter-Phinney was the first-ever gold medallist in the women’s road race at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, where his father Davis Phinney was a bronze medallist in the men’s team time trial.

Taylor Phinney won two individual pursuit world titles on the track before turning professional on the road with BMC in 2011. He made an early impression, wearing the maglia rosa after winning the prologue of the following year’s Giro d’Italia, but his career was interrupted by the compound tibia fracture and severed knee tendon he suffered in a crash at the 2014 US national championships.

After returning to the peloton, Phinney joined Cannondale (now EF) in 2017, completing the Tour de France twice and taking eighth at the 2018 Paris-Roubaix. He was still shy of his 30th birthday when he retired at the end of the 2019 season, citing the ongoing impact of the injuries sustained in his 2014 crash.

In retirement, Phinney turned his hand to painting, though he has remained in touch with cycling. His wife Kasia Niewiadoma won the Tour de France Femmes in 2024, while Phinney has raced gravel events over the years, including Sahara Gravel in Morocco in February.

“The track was where I first found love and success in this sport, it was even the first discipline to break my heart when my specialty event, the individual pursuit, was removed from the Olympic program, which prompted me to swiftly abandon the track and go all in on the road,” Phinney wrote. “Recently the USA boys have been making huge strides in the Team Pursuit, and I couldn’t be more stoked to be joining them in the chase for the Olympic Dream.”

Phinney confirmed that he had attended a training camp with the pursuit squad, adding that it was his first time riding in time trial position since 2019. 

“I’m happy with how I slotted into the group considering I’ve only been ‘back’ training since November, and I look forward to stepping up over the course of the next two years,” he wrote.

“Regardless of whether I make the official team for LA28 or not, I’m honoured to be in the running and will look forward to making some World Cup teams to elevate the team to its highest potential and Olympic qualifying position.”