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| World champ upset that 2012 race may be gone |
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Friday, November 06, 2009
MIAMI: Taylor Phinney had a simple plan. The budding American cycling star was going to spend four years working toward four minutes, which was about how long his final race would have taken at the 2012 London Games.
He wanted an Olympic gold. And now, the chance might already be gone.
Phinney said on Wednesday he's 'devastated' by a proposal that International Olympic Committee is expected to adopt next month that would remove some cycling events from the London program, including individual pursuit - the event where the 19-year-old is the reigning world champion.
The International Cycling Union decided several weeks ago to ask the IOC to add other events, part of a gender parity plan. To allow for those, individual pursuit and points races - two track endurance events - were targeted for removal, and Phinney fears it's already rubber-stamped.
"Not going to lie to you: I have actually cried myself to sleep over this," Phinney told The Associated Press. "Just once, but I did it."
Team pursuit would stay in the Olympics, according to the current proposal. That's another strike for Phinney: Most of the other elite individual pursuers in the world have strong team pursuit squads to fall back on. Phinney really doesn't.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
