Phinney in no rush to reach cycling’s grand stage

Taylor Phinney woke up early Saturday, settling in to watch the Tour de France prologue from his couch in Boulder, Colo.

Someday, he’ll have a different view of cycling’s premier event.

“I’m just one bike racer enjoying watching a bike race, which is kind of funny, because whenever we get in a bike race we just want it to be over,” Phinney said. “But this one, I’m going to enjoy.”

By the schedule he’s mapped out, the 19-year-old son of U.S. cycling royalty will be in Le Tour in 2012 or 2013. Phinney spent the past year smashing expectations, first by reaching the Beijing Olympics, then winning the world individual pursuit title, capped by becoming the first American to win the Paris-Roubaix race for riders under 23.

And ultimately, the Tour will be his obsession.

But for now, he believes it’ll all happen in good time.

“I had the opportunity to turn pro after the Olympics,” Phinney said. “And something really good about having the parents that I have, I don’t really have the need to rush things. I realize that I have a good head on my shoulders and I have good people backing me.”

Indeed, his backers are a who’s-who of cycling.

His father, Davis, is a former Tour de France stage winner and still is the winningest U.S. cyclist ever. His mother, Connie, won a cycling gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. And his biggest backer is none other than Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner who picked Phinney to be part of his U-23 team last year.

“I wouldn’t rule anything out with Taylor,” Armstrong said this spring.

In turn, Phinney wouldn’t rule anything out for Armstrong, either.

Armstrong was 10th in the opening stage of the Tour on Saturday in Monaco, finishing 40 seconds behind Swiss time-trial specialist Fabian Cancellara.

“You can never discount Lance,” Phinney said. “I know he has the motivation. He weighs less and his power numbers are the same as when he was winning the tour. It’s going to be interesting.”

Seriously, could Phinney have someone better to emulate?

He’s been hearing “The Next Lance” stuff for years, finding it flattering at first and now merely just shrugging it off. No matter what he does, Phinney insists he — or anyone else, for that matter — will never match Armstrong’s tale.

“It’s not something that burdens me,” Phinney said. “No one is capable of being the next Lance, because Lance’s story is so unique. It’s a story that hasn’t been told in any other sport. Getting cancer, winning seven Tours in a row, beating cancer and coming back, it’s so inconceivable.”

Not long ago, what Phinney has done over the past few months would have been inconceivable as well.

He was the best U.S. track cycling story of the Beijing Games. Less than a year before those Olympics, he got on a track bike for the first time. Out of nowhere, he became the national champion in the individual pursuit, a 16-lap race around the velodrome that competitors describe as four minutes of sheer hell, pedaling furiously from the moment the starter’s gun pops.

Winning the world title this spring was another splashy moment, followed by hopping onto his road bike for the Paris-Roubaix victory two months later.

But the track remains his main focus, and winning gold in London three years from now is Phinney’s top priority.

“A gold medal makes you recognizable within the U.S. and getting that recognition, being known as a gold medalist is a lot different than being known as a Tour stage winner,” Phinney said. “I’ve shown that I’m definitely capable of getting the gold medal. After that, I’ll have a long career. I definitely have a while to keep growing within the sport.”

That’s the way Armstrong sees it, too.

“We expect big things out of him, not just for the development team but for USA Cycling,” Armstrong said during the Tour of the Gila in April. “Who knows when you go from the pursuit to the track, then you take it to the road? Who knows how that transfers into a race like Flanders or Roubaix or the Tour or anything? He could be with us for a long time.”

AP Sports Writer Tim Korte in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.