During his long recovery from a broken leg, Taylor Phinney became more aware of life off the bike. He explains his new perspective in an extensive interview with ProCycling. The BMC rider was sidelined for more than a year after a terrible crash during the US championships in 2014. Meanwhile, Phinney is back on his bike but has gathered important experiences.

Phinney had a hard time during his injury, especially when the USA Pro Cycling Challenge 2014 started just in front of his house in Boulder.

“I was fortunate that I had a lot of good people around me, people who were not necessarily in the cycling world, and even cycling people who I could spend time with but not think about or talk about cycling," he said. "That was really important and I certainly had to have distance from the sport. I didn’t want to focus on where I had to go the whole time. I just had to respect the process and remove myself from it and explore different areas."

During this period, Phinney reached an important conclusion. 

“I need to make sure that I’m getting all that I can out of my career personally and at the same time making sure that I’m not sacrificing too much, so that when I leave I still have a big foundation of love and support to carry me on to whatever else I want to do," he said.

Phinney returned to action at the Tour of Utah and already won a stage in his second race, the USA Pro Challenge.