Taylor Phinney out of Paris-Roubaix due to concussion

Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix will not feature American Cannondale-Drapac rider Taylor Phinney due to the concussion he sustained during a crash last weekend at the Tour of Flanders.

“Until yesterday, I was feeling pretty optimistic about being able to ride Roubaix this weekend,” Phinney said.

“I’d been feeling OK at the dinner table and hanging out. But then yesterday was my first ride outside. I started riding and got a little bit of a headache. Then it went away and I thought, ‘OK, I’ll be fine.’ But then it came back and I started experiencing some emotional ups and down that reminded me of the last concussion I had.”

After returning from the training ride and consulting with team doctors and management, they determined he would not line up for Sunday’s classic.

Team manager Jonathan Vaughters said, “With even the mildest of concussions, we sit the rider six days. The rider may be able to train some in that period, but racing is out of the question. Normally we encourage training to occur on the Tacx. We evaluate the rider daily, and after six days he must take a cognitive test to make sure the effects of the concussion have subsided. At that point, they may or may not be able to resume competition.”

Paris-Roubaix was one of Phinney’s targets for the year as the parcours suited his skillset well. Now, he’ll focus his training for the Amgen Tour of California in May as well as the stage one time trial at the Tour de France in Düsseldorf.

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Asked how his morale is, Phinney said, “I’m frustrated. I’ve been nursing myself this whole classics season to get into these races and be with the guys, but this just happens. This happened my first season as a pro, but then I ended up having a pretty nice second part of the season.

"On the positive end, I’m more motivated. I feel more motivated than I have in a long time to put in effort for the summer. I look forward to the Tour of California and the first stage of the Tour de France. These things excite me.”

Cannondale-Drapac had earlier announced that Sep Vanmarcke would also miss Paris-Roubaix due to injuries sustained during the Tour of Flanders.