USA Cycling and the US Bicycling Hall of Fame partnered this year to honor Taylor Phinney and Mara Abbott as their first-ever USA Cycling Athletes of the Year.
The award recognizes the top male and female cyclists in the USA Cycling's National Development Program. Phinney and Abbott both marked their careers in development this past year with big wins.
They'll receive the awards at the annual US Bicycling Hall of Fame banquet in Davis, California, on Saturday, when four cycling greats will be admitted into the Hall of Fame at that event as well.
Phinney
Phinney, 20, won the time trial championship at the Nationals in September in Greenville, SC, beating Levi Leipheimer by less than a second. He later won the under-23 world time trial and became the first American to win a medal – bronze – at the U23 world championship road race. He also won two world titles in track at the U23 level. A member of the Trek/Livestrong development team, he'll ride for BMC Racing Team in 2011.
Abbott
The 25-year-old graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., won her second elite road race national title this year. In July, as a member of the development team Peanut Butter & Co./Twenty 12, she became the first American to win Italy's Giro Donne.
Hall of Fame
Also at Saturday's ceremony on the UC-Davis campus, the following cyclists will be inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame:
Mike McCarthy
A 17 time U.S. National Cycling Champion who earned numerous track citations such as five Jr. National Road and Track titles and the USA Cycling Athlete of the Year in 1990. McCarthy competed from 1982 to 1998 in various competitions including criterium, road, track and team pursuit races. He was a Pan American Games Champion (1987) as well as a two-time Olympic Games participant (1988 and 1996). McCarthy was also the 1992 world professional cycling pursuit champion.
Dottie Saling
She has 53 years supporting the sport of cycling. From 1978 to 1993 she served as a member of the USAC Board of Directors where she became the first female vice-president. Saling also served as President of the Board of the US Bicycling Hall of Fame from 1996 to 2000. She was a member of the International Games Preparation Committee of USOC for multiple Pan American and Olympic Games as well as a contributing member of many other bicycling organizations. Currently, Saling is a US cycling official for various national championships and serves as treasurer of the Somerset (New Jersey) Wheelmen.
Gary Ellis
Ellis began racing at age 11 and turned pro six years later. He was the first amateur to win as an expert at the Grandnational Championships and soon after became the “A” professional Grandnational Champion. Gary is a four-time BMX Plus! “Racer of the Year,” and a four-time International Bicycle Motorcross Federation Pro World Champion. He is a 1998 ABA Hall of Fame inductee. After retiring from BMX in 1998 Ellis became the team manager of the Nirve BMX team.
George Mallory Hendee
America’s first amateur high wheel racing national champion at age 16 in 1882, Hendee won an astounding 302 out of 309 races ranging from sprint events to 20 mile races. He held the national championship title for 5 years. Hendee set high wheel and tricycle world records and later began riding and racing “safety” style modern bicycles. After retiring from racing in 1887, George became the president of the National Cycling Association. Inspired by the need to “pace” bicycle racers, in 1901 Hendee partnered with engineer Oscar Hedstrom to create the first mass-produced gasoline powered motorcycle in the United States. The business became known as the Indian Motocycle Company.
Interestingly, Phinney's parents Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney are both members of the US Bicycling Hall of Fame. Carpenter-Phinney was inducted in 1990, followed by Phinney in 2001. Maybe their son Taylor will follow in their tire tracks one day.
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