The St. Petersburg Times features prodigy and late bloomer Taylor Phinney and his rise as one of the top American cyclist in less than three years.

From the article: “Phinney did not begin racing until 2006, and a year later, he won the Junior Road World Championships in Mexico at age 17. Suddenly, he was being called the most exciting athlete to hit the American cycling scene in years. The Mini Phinney.”

” ‘Davis and I thought if he had a good day, he might be in the top 20. And he won,’ Carpenter-Phinney said. ‘We looked at each other afterwards and said: ‘His life is never going to be the same. Never.’ ”

A year later, Taylor qualified for the Olympics.”

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O grinding it out in Denmark. Left to right: Chris Sutton, Tyler Farrar, Pat McCarty and Kilian Patour.

Today was a long and boring day at the Tour of Denmark. I’ll spare you the details of the first 150 km because not much happened. Just a 3-man breakaway that ended up taking a pee break off the front in an effort to give up because the whole race route was into a headwind for over 200 km. When the break had just a 15″ gap, the whole peloton pretty much stopped and started yelling ‘Come on! Go! Go!’ jokingly trying to get them to keep going. It was hilarious and helped kill off some of the boring stage.

After the break of 3 came back, a break of 7 went up the road with 50 km to go. CSC and Panaria kept them at a 1′ gap. Going into the finishing circuits, our team was at the front trying to set Tyler up. We went to the front way too soon for our strength. We got swarmed after awhile and didn’t have much control of the situation. CJ and Dan were left and did a good job at helping Tyler the best they could in what was a super crazy 4 km circuit.

With 4 km to go on the last lap, I was working my way back to the front of the race when a crazy kamikaze rider shot from the left side of the road directly into my rear wheel destroying all the spokes. I was so angry knowing my race was over and just stood on the side of the road waiting for a new wheel. But I figure since I have lost a lot of time, maybe on one of the next stages I will be allowed to go up the road in a break and maybe win a stage. As all that was going on with me, Tyler (above) was fighting for position in the sprint. He did, finishing 9th today.

This race can only get better for my team and I. Being at a really nice hotel tonight helps the mood out a lot. Tomorrow is supposed to be a really hard stage. At least that’s the word coming from the Danish racers.

Good news to come, Steven

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 2 results
1. Matti Breschel 5h42′38″

9. Tyler Farrar +00″
53. Pat McCarty +00″
64. Chris Sutton +27″
83. Dan Martin +2′55″
90. Christophe Laurent +3′08″
95. Lucas Euser +3′08″
98. Steven Cozza +3′54″
102. Kilian Patour +4′35″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Matti Breschel 9h50′04″

8. Tyler Farrar +13″
56. Pat McCarty +22″
64. Chris Sutton +40″
84. Dan Martin +3′17″
89. Christophe Laurent +3′30″
91. Lucas Euser +3′30″
98. Steven Cozza +4′06″
100. Kilian Patour +4′57

Canada’s Pedal Magazine interviews Ryder Hesjedal on his recent success at the Tour de France and his plans for the Olympics in Beijing.

From the Q&A
PEDAL: What were your emotions riding onto the Champs-Élysées for the first time having completed your first Tour de France and where does that compare to other cycling moments for you?

Ryder: “That’s a tough one, I don’t know if I can compare it to anything, it’s so special and unique…When you finally get into the urban centre of Paris after three weeks and you catch the Eiffel Tour poking up out of the corner of your eye and then you get into the main streets there and you do turn onto the Champs-Élysées and see the Arc de Triomphe it’s pretty hard to describe the energy and feeling and the amount of people that are there, and you just know you did it and you just have nine more loops of this thing and that’s a wrap. It’s just full gas, full emotion, full energy and it went by pretty quick actually (laughs) and all of a sudden you’re changed and you’ve got sneakers on and you’re back on the Champs victory style, checking out all the people – that’s what it’s all about!”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talks to Peters Township graduate Mike Friedman about his upcoming debut at the Beijing Olympics in the Madison track event.

From the article: ” ‘In the Madison, the race is not just physical ability and how well prepared you are. There’s a lot of luck,” Friedman said. “A lot of times, there’s accidents. Sometimes, it’s not if you’re going to crash, but when or how you’re going to crash.’ ”

“Which is not something that seems to scare Friedman. Some first-time Olympians take a safe approach — they train and strive to do their best, but they also think about setting a foundation for future Games. Not Friedman.”

Stuff.co.nz talks to Julian Dean about his career-best outing at this year’s Tour de France and his goals for 2009.

From the article: “Dean notched top 10 finishes in six stages of the 21-stanza tour, was ninth in the sprinters’ standings and helped his Garmin Chipotle team to fifth overall in the team standings. His best results were a fourth in the 14th stage and sixth in the final stage down cycling’s “Avenue of Dreams”, the Champs-Elysees.”

The Victoria Times-Colonist reports on two events that will give Victoria residents the opportunity to welcome Ryder Hesjedal home from the Tour and send him off to the Olympics.

The International Herald Tribune talks to David Millar about the “…rift between cycling’s leadership and race organizers (that) is leaving riders isolated and vulnerable in a sport already burdened by doping scandals.”

“Cycling is an easy target in that it is there is very little solidarity across the board. The prime example is the UCI-ASO farce,” Millar told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “That is cycling in a nutshell. At the moment we are easy targets because we are unable to defend ourselves as a whole.”

It was actually quite a crazy day for Denmark. For the first time ever in Denmark’s history, the flags were not even moving. It was calmer than two bricks laying in a grass field. Because of this, the race got off to a slow start — that is until a group of seven went with my French teamate Kiki (Kilian Patour) in it. Team CSC actually missed the move. Surprising really given they have won this race for the past five years and one of their major sponsors is Danish. But they kept the break close, and after chasing at nearly 60 kph, the break was shut down.

Immediately three riders from non-threatening teams jumped away and the peloton was more then happy to take a pee stop. As the race unfolded from there, we knew it was going to come to a field sprint. So our plan was to try and lead both CJ (Chris Sutton, pictured above) and Tyler Farrar out. Both were feeling good, so it was a go. Our plan was to take them to the front with 1 lap of 4 km to go. But that didn’t happen.

The finishing circuit was way too crazy dangerous and the only way it would have worked was if we had been at the front going into it as a team setting the pace. So it was pretty much every man for himself. We didn’t come out with the win on this stage, but hopefully in the next five we can take something home. With a good game plan and great teamwork, I’m confident we can do it.

With today’s stage out of the way, the cobwebs are dusted off. It sure feels great to be racing back over here in Europe again. I can’t wait till tomorrow’s longest stage of the race at 220 km.

Thanks and more to come, Steven