Continuous pain in his left knee has forced Team BMC Racing's Taylor Phinney to abandon his first WorldTour race, midway through Stage 3 of the 2011 Volta a Catalunya 2011. Phinney hopes to return to competition in 2011 Paris-Roubaix.

Continuous pain in his left knee has forced Team BMC Racing's Taylor Phinney to abandon his first WorldTour race, midway through Stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya 2011.

Taylor Phinney told Roadcycling.com and Roadcycling.mobi that the pain he first experienced in stage 1 of the race made for a mentally and physically tough day on the race's Queen Stage (won by Alberto Contador).

Though Phinney was dropped on the opening category 1 climbs, he managed to chase back to the leading peloton group. "But by the third climb, my knee had had enough," Phinney said and added "One of the hardest things to do in the sport of cycling is to get off your bike and I fought as hard as I could."

Phinney added "I am incredibly disappointed to leave the Volta a Catalunya and go through yet another setback in my first year as a professional, but I am learning from all of these experiences, and am fortunate to have an amazing team around me that is willing to do what is best for me in the long run. In the end, I had to do what was best for my health. I am still hoping to make the start line for Roubaix (2011 Paris-Roubaix)."

Team BMC Racing doctor Max Testa believes the pain in Phinney's left quadricep tendon to be an unfortunate result of several factors. Small changes were made to Phinney's bike position a few days before the race. Add cold weather on the race's opening day and the intensity difference between training and racing and you have a dangerous cocktail.

"We didn't want to take any risks, so we decided to stop him," Testa commented and concluded "We'll evaluate the injury tonight and afterwards he'll probably take a couple of easy days. Then we will reset his program."

Ironically, Phinney had said the 2011 Volta a Catalunya would be a "sufferfest" for him before starting the race.

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