After his long recovery from a broken leg, there was lots of uncertainty surrounding Taylor Phinney before the Worlds time trial on home soil. In the end there was no fairytale comeback as he had to settle for 12th.

However, that was enough to reach his pre-race target. The goal for the American team was to be among the 10 best nations that would secrure a spot in the TT at the Rio Olympics. With Poland and Italy both having two riders in the top 10, Phinney reached his goal, taking the 10th and final spot.

“It was the first hourlong time trial that I’ve done in, like, two years,” he told Velonews.“It’s definitely a different animal. I feel like I did all I could to prepare for it. I left everything out there — all the clichés you hear in the sport.”

“[Andrew] Talansky didn’t want a race; Tejay just broke his shoulder. We brought Lawson [Craddock]. He’s young, up-and-coming. But after Tejay broke his shoulder, I was like, ‘oh, man, I have to do this now. But that’s fine. If you can’t deal with that as a sportsman, than you’re not going to make it very far," he added regarding the pressure of having to secure the spot for Rio.

Phinney will next do the road race on Sunday.