Davis Phinney is a retired professional road bicycle racer from the United States. He won 328 races in the 1980s and 90s, a record for an American, including 2 Tour de France stages. He has worked in media since retiring as a racer. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age 40.
Career
Racing cyclist
He was a brazen sprinter and a star of the 7-Eleven Cycling Team in the 1980s and early ’90s, and is the leader in race victories by an American, with 328. In 1986, he became the second American to win a stage at the Tour de France, while riding for American-based 7-Eleven. His racing career spanned two decades and included two stage victories in the Tour de France, a United States National Road Race Championships title, and the 1984 Olympic Bronze Medal in the Men's 100 km Team Time Trial along with Ron Kiefel, Roy Knickman, and Andrew Weaver. Aside from Greg LeMond Phinney is the only American rider to make a legitimate run at winning the Green Jersey in the Tour de France. He and LeMond are the only two American riders to come in the top 3 of this classification. Phinney finished 2nd in the Points Classification during the 1988 Tour de France.
Post-racing career
Since retiring from cycling, Phinney has remained active as a cycling sports commentator, public speaker, journalist, and avid Nordic ski racer.
Phinney was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age 40, and established the Davis Phinney Foundation in 2004, a registered 501 nonprofit organization. As Taylor was about to go to the Beijing Olympics late in 2008, Davis underwent deep brain stimulation in an effort to control some of his symptoms. Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University Medical Center, implanted two electrodes 2.5 inches into either side of Phinney's brain, powered by a pacemaker in his chest. According to ESPN, the procedure was risky and not promising, but worked instantly. Phinney explained:
The doctor said, 'OK, let's try a little current now, and just like that, all these muscles that had been at war with each other suddenly were at peace. It was like Armistice Day. It was just like, 'Oh … my … god!' I looked at my wife and she was crying. She said, 'I haven't seen your smile in a year!'
By 2012, the disease was setting in again. Doctors told him the brain pacemaker could turn the clock back on the progress of Parkinson's five years. Four years after the surgery, while Phinney didn't shake like he used to, his balance was severely compromised.
