Carpenter-Phinney's cycling life has come full circle

By Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, May 9, 2008

Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Davis Phinney, right, and his wife, Connie, work at the kitchen table in their Boulder home. Davis is dealing with Parkinson's, a disease that his wife calls "rather challenging."

Ken Papaleo / The Rocky/1993

Taylor is read to by mom Connie and dad Davis, long before Davis was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's disease.

Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Taylor Phinney, left, takes off from his Boulder home along with Allen Lim, one of his cycling coaches.

Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

By the looks of things, Taylor Phinney has what it takes to follow in the footsteps of his Olympic medal-winning mom, Connie.

Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Taylor, 17, has leanings on doing well at the Beijing Olympics, after having become a force in junior cycling.

It was a touching moment for Connie Carpenter-Phinney, and that was plain on her face as she made her way through a Chicago hotel ballroom several weeks ago.

Standing on a nearby stage was her son, Taylor, calmly handling a torrent of questions about the Beijing Games, where the soft-spoken Boulder High School student will compete against the world's best cyclists in individual pursuit.

Just the other day, it seems, Carpenter-Phinney was the prodigy, a willowy athlete with flowing red hair and iron legs who, on a perfect Los Angeles day in 1984, became the first woman in history to win an Olympic cycling event.

Now, 24 years later, she was studying her son during the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit, lost in a moment that seemed almost unreal.

"We never saw this coming," she said.

It was the end of a strange week for Carpenter-Phinney.

Only 24 hours before, she had been in California, sweating it out at Stanford University Medical Center, where her husband, Davis, the first American Tour de France stage winner, in 1986, had undergone deep brain stimulation.

Electrodes were embedded on both sides of his brain in an effort to control some of the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that affects mobility.

Between tending to both her husband and son, Carpenter-Phinney also kept close tabs on her daughter, Kelsey, 14.

What difference does a mother make?

The question never arises in the Phinney home, where Connie long ago tailored her life to suit her family's dreams.

Tough and warm at once, she does everything these days, from running the family's businesses to taking care of routine daily matters to handling problems big and small, including the heavy strain of her husband's incurable illness and its impact on their children.

"It makes her job as a mother and wife definitely a lot harder," Taylor, 17, said. "But she handles it really well. She's definitely a great mom and a great caregiver."

Sunday should be a special Mother's Day for Carpenter-Phinney.

A different Olympic quest

A few weeks ago, doctors in Palo Alto, Calif., activated the pacemaker that had been implanted in Davis' brain. In an interview with The Associated Press, he reported there was no detectable tremor on the left side of his body. He also said he could walk more easily. Davis, 48, a former Olympian, now hopes to travel to Beijing to watch his son compete in the Games this summer.

While Davis was preparing for his surgery, helping his son with racing tactics from afar, Carpenter-Phinney, 51, found herself back on the World Cup tour, organizing Taylor's schedule, filling out forms, booking flights.

"All I really have to do is ride my bike," said Taylor, whose first bike race was in 2006.

Phinney's unlikely odyssey has taken him from China to England to Denmark, but it all started in 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,' " Carpenter-Phinney said. "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.

"We have a very tightly knit family. We're all very supportive. Kelsey was in Beijing as well. All of this has been good medicine for (Davis); it's been good medicine for everybody."

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.

"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.

From skating to cycling

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, which is why she moved to Boulder - it was an early hotbed for the sport - after graduation.

Carpenter won the Coors Classic in 1977, '81 and '82 but crashed in the second stage of the '83 race, fracturing bones in her left wrist and elbow in a fall during the Boulder Mall Criterium. Yet she placed an impressive fifth in the national championships three weeks later and won the women's world championship less than a month later.

"Those were great days. When I was in the Coors Classic, it was just such a fabulous experience. We lament quite regularly the absence of that race," she said.

Less than a year before the 1984 Olympics, she married 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," she said.

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.

In Australia, though, he struggled to hold a microphone steady, an alarming sign to his wife, whose mother died at 55 after suffering for years from multiple sclerosis.

Defining moment

Phinney 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," he said. "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 came home to Boulder 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.' "

Carpenter-Phinney is determined to help her son develop all his resources. Nearly a quarter century after her breakthrough victory in Los Angeles, sacrifice remains her personal code. In Chicago, that was obvious as well.

"I'm a person who lives in the present," she said. "We just feel really blessed to have two teenagers who have passion. They're good kids who'll make terrific adults.

"As far as Taylor's future, we'll be with him when he has his ups, and we'll be with him when he has his downs. I can't predict where it's going. But the sky is the limit."

OLYMPIC FAMILY

Taylor Phinney will be the third member of his family to compete in the Olympics.

* Davis Phinney

Won a bronze medal in the team time trial at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Captured two stage victories in the Tour de France, a U.S. Pro title and was a member of the pioneering 7-Eleven team. Started racing at 16 in Boulder, his hometown.

* Connie Carpenter-Phinney

Won a gold medal in 1984 Olympic road race and competed in the 1972 Winter Olympic speedskating competition, making her one of only a few two-sport Olympians. Also a national crew champion at California.

* Taylor Phinney

Two years after his first race, the Boulder High School student has become one of world's best track cyclists. In the past nine months, he has won the junior road world championship, the U.S. elite track nationals, a World Cup event in Los Angeles and earned a berth in the Beijing Olympics.

THE PHINNEYS: IN THEIR OWN WORDS

* Connie Carpenter-Phinney, on son Taylor's early interest in soccer: "He thought he was going to be Ronaldo."

* Connie, on riding with her son: "He's got so much power, it takes like three or four of me to keep up."

* Connie, on doping in cycling: "I know for sure Taylor's arriving at a good time. I'd be more concerned if he was playing football."

* Connie, on daughter Kelsey, 14: "She's fighting an irresistible path, there. At some point, she figures she'll have to try cycling, too."

* Taylor, on the anxiety of race day: "My mom gets really nervous; it's kind of funny. My dad is more calm. I don't get all that nervous about anything."

* Taylor, on going to college: "I'll definitely take at least a year off before going, if not waiting for my career to be over."

* Taylor on political unrest surrounding the Beijing Games: "I'm not worrying too much about it. I'm not really following it too much, either."