Despite the warning from a high school history teacher who told him he'd "never make it as a professional bike racer," Davis followed his heart with the ferocious mental determination he is now famous for. By 1979 he was already setting a record in the very race – the Red Zinger Classic – that had first inspired him just four years earlier.
From the late 1970's until his retirement from professional cycling in 1993, Davis achieved more wins – 328 victories in all – than any other US Cyclist. Along with Lance Armstrong and Greg Lemond, Davis is one of only three Americans to win multiple stages of the Tour de France, the world's most prestigious bike race.
Among the hundreds of wins Davis has achieved are the Olympic Bronze Medal (1984), a Pan-Am Games Gold Medal (1983), and four National Championship titles, including the coveted US PRO title in 1991. Fittingly, he was also one of the most successful riders in the history of the Coors Classic (the successor to Colorado’s Red Zinger Classic) winning the overall title in 1988 and collecting a record 22 stage wins.
In 1983, Davis formalized two relationships that continue to sustain him. He began riding bikes built by Ben Serotta and, most importantly, he married his long-time girlfriend and now wife of over 20 years, the Olympic athlete, Connie Carpenter.
In 1993, after almost 20 years of nearly unprecedented success as a cyclist, Davis retired from pro cycling. His last professional win set yet another record that is still unbroken; he finished the legendary "Hotter Than Hell 100" in Texas in an amazing 3hrs. 23 minutes. To this day, no one has ridden that difficult ride faster.
For Davis, retirement did not mean giving up athletics. He turned his attention to Nordic skiing – another demanding sport. Professionally, life continued to be fast-paced and demanding as he took up duties as a well known sportscaster for ABC, CBS, NBC and OLN.
But in 2000, after years of feeling not quite right, and an almost endless round of tests, Davis was diagnosed with Young-Onset Parkinson’s. Finally, the years of battling constant fatigue, the mental fogginess, the muscle cramping and bouts of sudden numbing weakness had a name. And it was not a name any of us ever wants to hear in the same breath with our own.
Davis retired from television in 2000 upon diagnosis. Shortly thereafter the Phinneys moved to Italy, in part to adjust to the disease and in part because many of their Bike Camps are based in Italy. While living in Italy, Davis was contacted by a former Bike Camp client Kathleen Krumme who asked Davis to lend his name to her ride in Cincinnati to benefit PD. And from those beginnings, the Davis Phinney Foundation was born.
