Taylor Phinny (Trek/Livestrong) edges out Levi Leipheimer by a margin of .1 seconds to take the US time trial championship victory. The 20 year old pro is the first to take the red, white and blue jersey other than David Zabriskie. The large crowd in Greenville, SC got to see one the most exciting time trial finishes in recent memory.
Leipheimer on his 2nd place finish:
“You could count a hundred places where I lost 0.14 of a second but anybody can do that, Taylor can do that and Bernard can do that,” Leipheimer said. “It will just take some time to get over the disappointment. Sometimes it is good to have a stinging defeat like that. Sometimes you need it to kick it in gear and re-motivate yourself. I guess I’m just looking on the bright side.”
“It is not the first time that I have lost by 0.14 of a second,” he said regarding a second place in the Dauphine Libere time trial in 2005. “I lost an hour-long time trial by 0.14, but I also took the yellow jersey that day and that was a little bit of compensation. Today I get nothing, nothing but 41 minutes of pain.”
Phinney on his win:
“This is probably one of the biggest wins in my career because it is an Elite national championship,” said Phinney, a two-time elite world pursuit champion. “Anytime you win as an Under 23 it is great but it’s not the real deal. This is a jersey that I get to wear for the next year and in my first year as a pro and I am very excited about that. It is up there with my world championship wins on the track for sure.”
“I was suffering on the uphills but can gain a lot of time on the downhill just due to my size,” Phinney said. “I was focused on getting over the hills and working up a speed over the top. That last lap I was suffering but I knew that I was close because there were times when I could see Levi and every lap he would sort of be in the same place. I knew that if I was going to make up any time it would be on the back section of the course.
“To be honest I didn’t think I got it when he crossed the line,” he added. “I was creeping back toward the finish line, 50 metres away watching the time and looking for Levi. I saw him coming and I was pretty sure that I had not done enough. It was a waiting game and 20 of the longest seconds of my life.”
Final TT Results
| 1 | Taylor Phinney (Trek Livestrong U23) | 0:41:02.51 | |
| 2 | Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) | 0:00:00.14 | |
| 3 | Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly) | 0:01:12.46 | |
| 4 | Carter Jones (Jelly Belly) | 0:01:14.64 | |
| 5 | Matthew Busche (Team RadioShack) | 0:02:18.14 | |
| 6 | Adrian Hegyvary (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) | 0:02:19.50 | |
| 7 | Benjamin King (Trek Livestrong U23) | 0:02:42.69 | |
| 8 | David Williams (Bissell Pro Cycling) | 0:02:52.11 | |
| 9 | Paul Mach (Bissell Pro Cycling) | 0:02:52.63 | |
| 10 | Nicholas Frey (Jamis-Sutter Home) | 0:03:00.81 | |
| 11 | Jonathan Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies) | 0:03:17.31 | |
| 12 | Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) | 0:03:18.16 | |
| 13 | Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly) | 0:03:55.23 | |
| 14 | Scott Tietzel (Mountain Khakis) | 0:03:58.95 | |
| DNF | Peter Stetina (Garmin-Transitions) |
