Taylor Phinney was destined to be a cycling star. After all, the Boulder High School graduate, now 20 years old, was born to champion cyclists Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney. Although young Phinney's early successes came in track cycling, he's making a push on the more glamorous and lucrative road-racing circuit as he embarks on this week's Amgen Tour of California for Swiss-based team BMC Racing (Denver Post). Phinney has a long way to go in the sport (which his father dominated by winning more races than anyone in U.S. history), but he's already drawing comparisons to Lance Armstrong.

The Amgen Tour was delayed yesterday due to snow, but weather permitting, Phinney will make his pro road debut today at 11:15 a.m. Denver time (Los Angeles Times). He's also scheduled to ride Colorado's inaugural U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge in August, a race that will boast the two highest passes in international cycling (Post).

Phinney won't be the only local to watch during the Amgen. A crew of Garmin-Cervelo riders from Boulder are poised to make a run at first this year, although some of their teammates are still across the Atlantic competing in the Giro d'Italia. Brett Lancaster, an Australian rider for Garmin-Cervelo, finds the Giro difficult for numerous reasons (VeloNews video), but his teammate Christophe Le Mevel is performing well: He finished 11th in the 9th stage of the race Sunday and sits in third place overall (VeloNews).