LONDON — It came sometime on the ninth and final lap up Box Hill, the picturesque but grinding climb that was turning the Olympic peloton to splinters and Taylor Phinney’s leg to jelly.
Phinney was cramping big time. But sprinter Tyler Farrar didn’t have it and Timmy Duggan wasn’t expected to hang with the first group very long. Phinney had stopped pedaling, standing up out of the saddle to kill the cramp.
That’s when Tejay van Garderen, who, along with Phinney and Duggan form the Boulder triad on the U.S. Olympic road race team, pulled up to Phinney’s bike and said, “Hey, you just have to push through this. It’s our last time up the climb. You’re our sprinter and you’re our hope right now.'”
Said Phinney later: “That resonates big.”
It hit home enough to drive Phinney, the 22-year-old Boulder High grad, to within a bike length of a surprise Olympic medal. Norway’s Alexander Kristoff edged him as they both emerged from a scrum of 24 riders trying to grab the one medal left behind by gold medalist Alexandr Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and silver medalist Rigoberto Uran Uran of Colombia.
For the Phinney family, this hit home. Taylor’s mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, won the 1984 Olympic road race title. His father, Davis, who won more bike races than any American in history and was favored to win gold in the same Games. He finished fifth.
Resting near the finish line just a few blocks from Buckingham Palace, Taylor sounded just as disappointed as his father did 28 years earlier.
“Fourth seems like it would be nice,” Phinney said, “but it’s the worst place you can imagine at the Olympic Games.”
Some day Phinney will put it in perspective and smile. Host Great Britain will only wince at one of its darkest days in its cycling history.
It planned to use its strong cycling teams to ignite a medal haul that would make the world notice the country for something else besides a disappointing soccer team and worse food. But favored Brit Mark Cavendish was never in contention.
This is only Phinney’s fourth year of road racing after competing in track cycling in Beijing. So credit Phinney for pouring more rain on Great Britain’s soggy rep, even though Kristoff stole his dream.
“I’ve never beaten him in a sprint before,” Phinney said. “He’s a true sprinter. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself that. So I was definitely beaten by a better man.”
Phinney came into this race under the American radar, let alone the world’s. The British media had Cavendish on every front page and Tour de France- winner Bradley Wiggins was going to shepherd him into the screaming hordes of London.
It didn’t happen, allowing the Americans to attack and get in position for unexpected glory. Halfway through the 156-mile race, which made nine laps of Box Hill’s 9.3-mile circuit in pretty rural Surrey County, Duggan joined 11 others in a breakaway. Phinney caught up with a group chasing Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert in lap 5 and got dropped in the eighth lap. But van Garderen helped him bridge the gap coming out of Box Hill and heading into the flat sprint to London.
“I just felt good at that time,” Phinney said. “I saw the kind of guys that were going. The guys in the group were all huge names. I was a little surprised myself that I could even follow them.”
The Brits were still leading the peloton and in perfect position, just 1:23 behind Phinney’s chase group. Gilbert was fading and plenty of mileage remained. But the chase group kept increasing its lead.
Cavendish was running out of time.
“To tell you the truth, even though they’re arguably the strongest team, everyone looked for them to do the work,” Duggan said. “They had help from the Germans, too, but man, it’s a long race.”
With less than six miles left, defending Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland crashed into a barrier on a sharp turn and Vinokourov and Uran Uran attacked, leaving the chase group chasing bronze.
Phinney wound up chasing Kristoff and slammed his fist in frustration as he crossed the line fourth.
“I gave it everything I had,” Phinney said. “I felt terrible the last 40 kilometers but as we got closer to the finish, the crowds were so loud and Tejay was doing such a good job, it kind of hit me that this is the Olympics and I’m going for a medal right now.”
Unlike most of the others, Phinney has another chance in the time trial, his specialty. In a way, fourth place Saturday may be a blessing Wednesday.
“It makes you more hungry,” Phinney said, “that’s for sure but it’s definitely disappointing.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnhendersondp
