Taylor Phinney was, alongside Fabian Cancellara, the most notable absentee of Wednesday’s World Championship ITT event. But while the renowned Swiss time trialist deliberately decided to skip the event in order to focus exclusively on a battle for the rainbow jersey in the road race, the young American is still recovering from injuries sustained during the national championships held in May. Inspired by the latest Jens Voigt’s achievement, the BMC Racing rider claimed, however, that he would like to return to racing with his own Hour Record attempt before the big guns raised the bar too high.

Phinney said: "I've thought about it and I think it would be a cool comeback idea because in these early stages, before the huge guns really set their stamp on the whole thing, it's simpler to be a record holder.

"It's something that doesn't require a lot of torque and as long as my legs are back to being equal it's something that could be done if I wasn't ready to dive into races at the spring classics.

He added: "I knew whoever was the first one to do it after they changed the rules had a very, very strong chance of beating it. Once you see guys like Brad or Tony Martin — even though he hasn't really shown an interest in it — or Cancellara going for it they're going to set the bar really high.

As Phinney predicts that the likes of Cancellara or Martin would make the Hour Record extremely difficult to break, he acknowledged that, once again, the 42-year old German proved to be starter than anyone else with making his attempt first.

"I really think Jens was smart more than anything just to be that first one to do it and to hold that record… but I think that's a really cool way to go out as far as his career goes," Phinney said yesterday.

Phinney’s 2014 season was effectively ended with his dramatic crash during the national championships in Chattanooga, in which he sustained a compound tibia-fibula fracture and damage to his left knee. Even though his recovery progresses as planned and the 24-year old American is already back on his bike, he expressed doubts on whether he would be able to return in form in his beloved spring classics next season.

"I've been able to ride a lot and do accelerations that drop some of the guys I'm training with, who have been racing all season, but I pay a price for that — my knee gets tired, or tight or I start using my right leg more."