Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) of the United States rode through an emotional day in the cold rain at Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday, churning the pedals alone for four hours, thinking about his father, Davis, who lives with Parkinson’s Disease.
Phinney lost contact with the peloton partway through the 209km sixth stage around Porto Sant’Elpidio, Italy, and when his companions in the grupetto pulled their race numbers off, he was left to carry on alone.
Phinney finished more than 35 minutes behind stage winner Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and officials time-cut him.
The American had been targeting the final-stage time trial at San Benedetto del Tronto and was hoping for an exemption from the time-cut, but will have to re-focus ahead of the classics. – Velonews
