Teenager Taylor Phinney enjoys his first Olympic experience

BEIJING – Taylor Phinney is hanging with the gymnasts at the Olympic Village.

“It’s great,” Phinney said. “They’re sort of under lock-down mode with their coaches but they get like 10 minutes to eat. Shawn Johnson. Nastia Liukin, she just won a gold medal.”

Phinney, an 18-year-old who has traveled more than 80,000 miles in the last 10 months and ridden his bicycle 10,000 miles in his effort to qualify for the Olympics, finished seventh Saturday night in the men’s individual pursuit cycling event at the Laoshan Velodrome. So he won’t be quite as famous in the village as Liukin and Johnson. And he’s 6-foot-4 and 175 pounds, so it takes him more than 10 minutes to eat.

That he couldn’t advance to the finals and compete against men a decade older – including gold medalist Bradley Wiggins, a 28-year-old from Britain, and 27-year-old silver medalist Hayden Roulston of New Zealand – wasn’t unexpected by anyone. Except Phinney.

He totally thought he’d win an Olympic medal.

After all, in the stands sat his mother, Connie Carpenter Phinney, who was a gold medalist in the cycling road race at the 1984 Olympics, and his father, Davis Phinney, who won a bronze medal as part of the 1984 American cycling time trial team.

After the race, Phinney’s father offered his right hand in greeting, a gesture that was as much a triumph as what his son had just accomplished.

Davis Phinney had brain surgery last April at Stanford to help alleviate serious symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and after his son had ridden Saturday, he stood still and bragged.

“I’m so proud of Taylor,” Davis said. “I can’t describe the feeling of being at the Olympics to watch my son.”

There were 20 of Phinney’s friends and family in the stands, and they had red cards that read, “Taylor Phinney, USA, Pursuit of Beijing,” with a list of all the places Taylor has traveled the last 10 months, including Los Angeles, Sydney, Cape Town and Bordeaux, France (where he spent the last month training with Roulston), and now Beijing.

“Ten months ago this wasn’t even a thought,” Davis said of his son’s quick rise to making the U.S. Olympic team and advancing through the first round of the Olympics.

Taylor’s eventual plans include spending more time on road cycling and eventually competing at the Tour de France. His coach, Neal Henderson, said Phinney would race for the Garmin-Chipotle under-23 road racing team this season.

Davis Phinney said he is looking forward to watching Taylor win medals at the 2012 London Olympics. Taylor is looking forward to something else. “I’d like to get tickets to the gymnastics,” he said.

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Sarah Hammer of Temecula, who was a world champion two years ago in the women’s individual pursuit, didn’t qualify for the medal round Saturday in the same event.

Hammer, who had been one of the cycling athletes criticized for wearing a mask after arriving in Beijing, was downcast afterward. “I haven’t really been having as much fun,” Hammer said. “What are you going to do? I didn’t give up out there, it just wasn’t my day. I haven’t been feeling well out there and I don’t know what it is. I’ll probably shed a couple of tears tonight.”

Hammer has been battling a back injury for nearly a year. “The back is OK,” she said. “Same as always. It’s a management issue.”

 diane.pucin@latimes.com