LONDON — It came sometime on the ninth and final lap up Box Hill, the picturesque but grinding climb that was turning the Olympic peloton to splinters and Taylor Phinney’s leg to jelly.

Phinney, of Boulder, was cramping big time. But sprinter Tyler Farrar didn’t have it and Timmy Duggan wasn’t expected to hang with the first group very long. Phinney had stopped pedaling, standing up out of the saddle to kill the cramp.

That’s when Tejay van Garderen — he, Phinney and Duggan form the Boulder triad on the U.S. Olympic road race team — pulled up to Phinney’s bike and said, “Hey, you just have to push through this. It’s our last time up the climb. You’re our sprinter and you’re our hope right now.'”

Said Phinney later: “That resonates big.”

It hit home enough to drive Phinney, a 22-year-old Boulder High grad, to within a bike length of a surprise Olympic medal. Norway’s Alexander Kristoff edged him as they both emerged from a scrum of 24 riders trying to grab the one medal left behind by gold medalist Alexandr Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and silver medalist Rigoberto Uran Uran of Colombia.

For the Phinney family, this hit home. Taylor’s mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, won the 1984 Olympic road race title. His father, Davis, who won more bike races than any American in history and was favored to win gold in the same Games. He finished fifth.

Resting near the finish line just a few blocks from Buckingham Palace, Taylor sounded just as disappointed as his father did 28 years earlier.

“Fourth seems like it would be nice,” Phinney said, “but it’s the worst place you can imagine at the Olympic Games.”

Read more about the race and Phinney’s reaction to fourth place.