Taylor Phinney is the savior of all mankind

Jesus. Mohammed. Taylor Phinney. What do they have in common?

If you read articles and subsequent drivel on forums, Taylor Phinney can ride on water. When the kid finishes a race, the American cycling public goes crazy comparing his last place finish to turning water into wine. When he actually does well, all other riders in the world are inferior and the entire cycling world must acknowledge Taylor's obvious omnipotence.

Let me counter the American bandwagon jumping cycling public with 2 names: Peter Sagan and Teejay Van Garderen.

Peter Sagan is the same age as Taylor Phinney. To date, Sagan has won 2 stages of Paris Nice and claimed the points jersey, 2 stages of the Tour of California with a top 10 overall finish along with the points jersey and the best young rider jersey. Yes, Phinney is the National Champion in the TT and that's no small feat. But lets get real here: Phinney has yet to do anything at the Pro level whereas Sagan has established himself as a force to be reckoned with.

And just recently, Phinney pulled out of the Volta a Catalunya due to knee problems. Upon doing so, the entire American cycling poser community wept uncontrollably and offered their condolences and their own knees to keep the savior on his bike and riding strong. After pulling out of the Volta of who-the-fuck-cares, a delusional Phinney was quoted: "I am still hoping to still make the start line for Roubaix."

Yeah, and I'm hoping to make the start line for Roubaix, too.

Look, I'm not saying I hate the guy. Far from it. As I don't even know him, how could I hate him? I'm just saying that the typical, uninformed American cycling fair-weather-fan always looks to one person as the hope of all humanity. First it was LeMond. Wow...what misplaced love THAT was. Then there was Lance. And now there's Phinney. That's all well and good and as a human being you should be allowed unrestricted freedom to be an idiot. Because Phinney is NOT the Jesus of American cycling. If you think he is, just remember that Sagan is the same age and has been winning for 2 years now and oh yeah, there's that AMERICAN guy riding for HTC named Teejay van Garderen who's results make Phinney look like a cat-4 'cross racer. How good is Van Garderen? For the Tour of California, he's the #1 guy for HTC. He just worked as the top domestique for Tony Martin, this year's winner of Paris Nice. After the race, Martin credited Teejay as the reason he was able to stay in contention on the decisive climbing stage of the race.

There's no room left on the Phinney bandwagon. Those of you that are on it, enjoy your slow paced, often aborted ride thru the junior races and third-tier pro lineups. If you had any sense (and obviously you don't if you read this far), you'd hoot and holler about Sagan and Van Garderen in addition to following Phinney.