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PARIS (Velo) — Chloé Dygert winced as searing ache bolted by way of her proper leg, moments after a mid-race spill on moist roads value her hope of successful an elusive gold medal in girls’s time trial Saturday to open the Paris Olympic Video games.
The high-speed crash noticed her lose time and momentum, and she or he bravely rode by way of the ache to safe a bronze medal on the line.
Grace Brown (Australia) received in 39 minutes, 38 seconds on the 32.4km course. Anna Henderson (Nice Britain) beat Dygert by lower than 1 second to say silver.
Dygert, 27, was grateful for bronze contemplating the heavy crash, however scheduled begins in Sunday’s girls’s highway race and her key function within the girls’s workforce pursuit subsequent week in monitor racing are thrown into uncertainty.
She grimaced in ache on the line and mentioned it’s too early to say if she is going to have the ability to race.
“I hope so. It simply is dependent upon my well being,” she mentioned when requested about Sunday’s highway race. “I nonetheless have an extended season to go. So we’re simply going to handle my physique, hope for one of the best.
“My leg positively is hurting. However I’ve nice fingers supporting me proper now,” she mentioned. “We’ll go house and do every thing we are able to to ensure I’ve one of the best care potential to hopefully begin the highway race in tremendous form.”
The 2-time world time trial champion got here in as America’s finest gold medal likelihood within the highway occasions, and began final with the No. 1 bib. Riders wakened Saturday to face moist roads, removed from ideally suited on a course that already confronted criticism from a number of the pre-race favorites.
On the first time examine, she was trailing eventual gold medalist Brown by 5 seconds.
She was ramping up her pace when she slipped on a moist nook and slammed laborious on the bottom.
“I knew within the first half that I didn’t have tremendous legs at present,” she mentioned. “I knew on the way in which again it was just a little bit extra downhill and I believed I might use that to my benefit.
“I had the little crash. I don’t know the way a lot that really affected me, it’s simply the way it goes.”
After the second time examine, she was 51 seconds off Brown’s blazing time. Dygert saved pushing, hoping that she might attain the end with sufficient to earn an Olympic medal.
Dygert was clearly wincing in ache after she crossed the road.
She had appeared to have the ability to higher transfer on her bike than stroll, and struggled to face with out assist from USA Biking staffers.
“I didn’t set it up proper. I slid out proper into it. It was my fault, I ought to have taken it a bit higher,” Dygert instructed media on the line, together with Velo.
“I had just a little little bit of adrenaline in me, fortunately, however I might positively inform instantly,” she mentioned. “I smacked my leg on my body, so the spasms and issues have been occurring within the leg. Right here and there I might inform there have been moments the place I simply misplaced just a little little bit of energy.”
Fortunately, that wasn’t the identical leg that she gashed open in her horrific crash within the 2020 Imola world championships, however the damage is worrisome.
In any case she’s been by way of the previous three years, she tried to place a constructive spin on issues.
“I don’t present as much as a race to lose. I’m not going to be a sore loser. All people reveals as much as win,” she mentioned. “I’ve solely had a sure period of time to arrange as a consequence of an damage early this season. I needed to take about three weeks off, three, 4 weeks off, about 13 weeks in the past.
“Then about final month I had COVID so I needed to take just a little little bit of break day then,” she mentioned. “Once more no excuse, I confirmed up at present to be able to go. That’s the way it goes.”
Knibb shakes off three crashes to complete top-20
Taylor Knibb additionally struggled on moist roads as a number of different riders crashed in slick roads in central Paris.
Knibb, who’s scheduled to race triathlon and blended triathlon throughout these Olympics, stopped the clock at 3:25 slower to complete nineteenth in her Olympic highway racing debut.
She crossed the road with skinned up knees and elbows, however she is hopeful she is going to have the ability to compete in these triathlon occasions later in these Olympic Video games.
