Taylor Phinney did his return during the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and his performance in the weeklong race has been unexpected. Indeed, the American rider would return to racing after a 14-month injury. He suffered a career-threatening crash after crashing into a guard-rail while attempting to avoid a motorcycle on the descent of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. He required surgery after suffering a compound fracture to his tibia and a severed patellar tendon.

"I am super satisfied", Phinney explained according to Velonews. "I’ve was just off the front group in the second and third stages. I would have been really happy with that even before the accident. I was pretty confident that I had the fitness to be OK, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to do racing. I didn’t have any blocks of training that were over three days. Oh, I did a couple of five-day things. But it’s just different in a race. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be alright after three or four stages."

About the next of his program, he does not know what race he will compete. "I came to this race thinking, ‘I just want to finish the Tour of Utah. I am looking forward to Colorado, but it’s not a definite. I require about two hours of physical therapy and massage and different adjustments of my body daily, just make sure I can start the next day."

"I have to really stay on top of that. I can’t get lazy when it comes to that stuff. I still have some work to do bringing the strength back up on my left side. So as I progress and move forward, it’s going to be even better. But I am super happy with how the last five days went."