An intimate conversation with America's favorite cyclist in his first Tour de France

Daniel McMahon/Business Insider

"Massage and body work have been my sole savior when it comes to be able to get on my bike day after day," says Taylor Phinney, 27.

GENEVA, Switzerland - Taylor Phinney and Paul Navin walk into the hotel room where Phinney has reported for his daily postrace massage. As the two come in from the hallway they're sharing an easy laugh.

Phinney is one of the US's top cyclists, and among its most popular, and he's here riding in his first Tour de France. Stage eight has finished, and within a short time he's up on the massage table, ready for Paul to work his muscles and push out the lactic acid that's built up over the past five hours competing in the world's biggest bike race.

"How was it today - gruppetto stressed?" asks Paul, an Irish soigneur, or carer, with the Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team, after the first major mountain test of the Tour. "Gruppetto" refers to the riders in the race who are not climbers and on a mountain stage form a group that tries to work together to make it to the finish before the time cut.

"No, actually," Phinney says. "Come to the big show and it's like ... relaxed. I like it. I'm also generally a little stronger than I normally am." He's referring to his left leg, which he has sometimes referred to jokingly as his "Frankenleg."

That goes back to the 2014 US championship road race, where Phinney crashed into a guardrail while trying to avoid hitting a race motorcycle. He suffered a compound fracture in his left tibia and a severed patellar tendon. He'd spend the next year out of action and then two more years trying to overcome his injuries and strengthen a weaker left leg.

Thirty-eight months - and multiple operations and physical-therapy sessions later - Phinney is now riding in his first Tour, on pro cycling's biggest stage. He found immediate success placing 12th out of 198 starters in the opening-stage time trial and leading the daylong breakaway on stage two and ending up winning the "king of the mountains" jersey for a day.

Phinney spoke with Business Insider after stage eight on Saturday, during his daily postrace massage. Here's what he had to say.