Former world champion Phinney quits cycling - for art

Paris - Two-time world champion Taylor Phinney said on Wednesday he was quitting cycling at the age of 29 to concentrate on becoming an artist.

Phinney, who races for Education First, will compete for the final time at the Japan Cup next weekend, bringing the curtain down on a career which yielded the world individual pursuit title in 2009 and 2010.

He also clinched the opening time trial on the 2012 Giro d'Italia which allowed him to pull on the overall leader's jersey for three days.

"I feel like my body sort of made this choice for me. I've now been injured longer than I've not been injured as a professional athlete. And I felt that it was a good time to click out and trade in my chips and get out of the casino," said the American.

"It's time to take that energy and put it into something fresh, something new, something unknown. I'm stepping away so that I can be more true to myself, which means to make art, to make music, to create and cultivate.

"I've kind of had one foot in the sports pool and then one foot in the art pool, and art just won at some point."