by Justin Davis

PRUSZKOW, Poland, March 30, 2009 (AFP) – Less than seven months after the Beijing Olympics the slow march to London in 2012 began in earnest at the world track cycling championships which ended here on Sunday.

But of the numerous young riders who staked an early claim to future Olympic glory, a few stood out – quite literally – from the rest.

American teen sensation Taylor Phinney stands 1.93m tall and looks built for the pursuit and endurance events.

Although not the exclusive star of the five-day competition, his gold medal victory in the men’s individual pursuit – in the absence of Britain’s defending champion Bradley Wiggins – suggested there may be no end to his talents, on the road or the track.

Winning a first world senior crown was not entirely unexpected for Phinney, whose parents Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter both won cycling medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

A two-time American pursuit champion who finished a promising seventh place on his Olympic debut in Beijing the 18-year-old – who has a road contract with Lance Armstrong’s development team Trek-Livestrong – looks built for the 16-lap race against the clock.

Phinney’s inherited set of cycling genes should also appear to be playing a useful role.

“My mum was pursuit world champion, my dad was a great sprinter, so maybe I’ve got this big genetic advantage over everybody else. It’s sort of written in my gene code that I should be good at this event.”

However Phinney’s performance that earned him silver in the kilometre almost defied track cycling logic, and showed another side to his potential.

Although no longer an Olympic event, the kilometre is still a valuable exercise because it provides crucial base training for the team sprint, especially for the third man in the three-lap power event.

But Phinney, skinny by comparison to the big power sprinters, shunned an explosive start and relied instead on a pursuiter’s ability to get gradually faster before hammering a final lap that effectively sealed his medal.

From provisional 25th place after the first 250 metres, he went to 22nd, 10th and then to silver medal position.

“I don’t know if it’s the right way to do it, but it’s the pursuiters’ way of riding the kilo I guess,” Phinney, who only decided to do the event on a whim about a month ago, told AFP.

“I don’t have that power at the beginning to throttle an 18-second lap, but I do have the endurance to keep the speed up in the last couple of laps.”

Still, in Olympic terms it is Phinney’s pursuit gold here that will have jolted his future rivals in London, where Australian Jack Bobridge, the silver medal winner here, should also be contending.

Wiggins, who this year is concentrating on his road career, will be itching to defend his crown on home soil, as well as spearheading Britain’s defense of their team pursuit title.

Phinney admitted he had not really expected to become world champion so quickly.

But now, working on his current personal best of 4min 15.160sec will be one of his priorities in the years leading up to London, where Wiggins, a “friend” according to Phinney, will be waiting.

“I think racing against Bradley will be a pretty big challenge the first time. We’re actually pretty good friends,” he told AFP.

“But it will be a case of both pushing each other to the next level. I think he’s glad to have someone on his speed radar, and I’m happy to be that person.”