Taylor Phinney had a simple plan. The budding American cycling star was going to spend four years working toward four minutes, which is about how long his final race would have taken at the 2012 London Games.

His reward was going to be Olympic gold.

And now, the chance might already be gone.

Phinney said Wednesday that he's "devastated" by a proposal the International Olympic Committee is expected to adopt next month that would remove some cycling events from the London program, including individual pursuit _ the event where the 19-year-old Colorado native is the reigning world champion.

Cycling's international governing body decided several weeks ago to ask the IOC to add other events, part of a gender parity plan. To allow for those, individual pursuit and points races _ two track endurance events _ were targeted for removal, and Phinney fears it's already a done deal.

"Not going to lie to you: I have actually cried myself to sleep over this," Phinney said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "Just once, but I did it."

Individual pursuit is an iconic event in track cycling: It's four kilometers (usually 16 laps around the banked wooden indoor tracks) for men, three kilometers (12 laps) for women, with only two competitors on the track, starting exactly opposite one another. The starter's gun sounds, and the next four minutes or so are pure torture, racers pedaling as fast as they can without stopping.

Phinney won the world title last spring in Poland, finishing in 4 minutes, 17.6 seconds. That works out to nearly 35 mph.

"It's the real true crossover event for a road cyclist to come to the track and prove not only their power, but their fluidity," Phinney's mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, said. "It's a pure discipline."

Obviously, Carpenter-Phinney won't argue when it comes to gender parity.

She was a world-class speedskater, switched to cycling and benefited greatly when women's events were added to the Olympics, winning a gold medal at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. Her husband and Taylor's father, Davis Phinney, is an American cycling icon, a winner of more than 300 races and a stage winner at the Tour de France.

Their kid has drawn rave reviews from cycling's biggest names, including and especially Lance Armstrong, who is a mentor of sorts to Phinney. Continued...