Such was the bleakness of the climate and the ferocity of the downpour in Zürich on Saturday on the eve of the elite girls’s race on the World Championships that Chloé Dygert had second ideas about participating at atll.
“This morning, I didn’t need to race,” she defined post-race. “So to return away with silver now I’m simply unhappy that it’s not gold.”
It is lucky that she did climb aboard her Canyon, as a result of the American battled again to complete second behind Lotte Kopecky of Belgium, one of the best outcome for the USA within the girls’s street race since Inga Thompson in 1991.
It might have been gold, have been she not arising in opposition to the rider who might be one of the best one-day rider of her era, the defending champion, a rider with a superior dash. Dygert was not again with the entrance group till nicely inside the remaining kilometre, when she rejoined the 4 different leaders together with Ruby Roseman-Gannon of Australia.
After Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) kicked issues off, Kopecky launched, and Dygert needed to come the great distance spherical simply co problem. It resulted in with silver.
“I used to be boxed in,” Dygert stated. “Now we are able to analyse it time and again… If I had a do over I might have simply attacked after Ruby got here by. In a dash with Kopecky, that’s most likely one of the best I can do. That is most likely one thing I am going to need to work on.
“There was a degree within the dash the place I wished to go early, and I used to be too boxed in. I needed to come a great distance spherical and making an attempt to dash with Kopecky shouldn’t be my factor.”
The newest race content material, interviews, options, opinions and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Put up-finish line, Dygert sat on the ground, in ache, unable to cease cramp within the leg which was critically impacted by her crash on the 2020 Worlds. “That’s a reasonably regular prevalence, particularly when it’s chilly,” she reassured. “I’ve to dwell with the ache.”
The silver medal within the elite street race joined Dygert’s bronze within the time trial final week to make for a reasonably profitable week for the USA girls’s group. Add in Kristen Faulkner’s triumph on the Olympics within the street race, and gold within the group pursuit on the observe, and it has been a banner yr for the Individuals.
“There have been a pair cycles the place on the Olympics we solely had two spots,” Dygert stated. “We had lots of accidents and diseases in USA biking, within the girls’s group. We’ve got proved this yr that we’re coming again and coming again sturdy. It has been tremendous nice to be part of the US nation this yr. We’re actually sturdy, coming away with an Olympic gold, and now a Worlds silver. I’m proud to be an American.”
The rain and chilly although, was the theme of the day. Listening to Dygert, it appeared spectacular that she completed in any respect, not to mention placing in a dash to clinch silver.
“With one lap to go I used to be coming by and I used to be shaking so uncontrollably, I did not know if I’d have the ability to flip anymore, it was fairly chilly,” she stated. “To begin off with I had a rain jacket on and I obtained scorching fairly fast, so I took that off. After we have been descending or going sluggish it was freezing, however fortunately on the final lap I needed to do lots of chasing so I stayed heat.”
