Chloé Dygert won’t take part in the upcoming UCI road or track world championships as a result of her continuing rehabilitation from her left leg injury. The USA national time trial champion and member of the bronze medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics has ended her season in order to further recover from injuries sustained in a crash at last year’s UCI Road World Championships.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Chloé was part of the USA’s team in the women’s road race and finished seventh in the individual time trial before switching her attention to the track. After being part of the silver medal-winning team for the USA in the team pursuit at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Chloé aimed one step higher in Tokyo. Following the qualifying and first-round finals, the USA team set an American Record and won the bronze medal final against Canada.
On returning to the USA, Chloé took a small break and planned to join CANYON//SRAM Racing for the remaining race calendar in Europe before aiming for the rainbow jersey in the ITT world championships in Flanders later in September. Following some time off the bike, Chloé returned to training, but the pain in her leg remained and her team made the decision to end her season.
“In only my second ride back after the Olympics I had a lot of pain in my leg after 500m and after 30 minutes I turned around and went home,” describes Chloé.
“After this, I knew that I couldn’t train and prepare at my best for these next races. To race at 100% and lose because you were beaten by someone faster or simply better, that’s one thing. To be on the start line at 80%, and feeling like you’re letting yourself or your teammates down, that’s another.”
Chloé continues, “Now, it’s about the bigger picture. As hard and frustrating as it is, I have to say that next year, and the years after that are more important. I know we’re going in the right direction, it’s just a different path than what we thought. I’m grateful to my support team at USA Cycling, Red Bull and CANYON//SRAM Racing for their understanding.”
Gary Sutton, USA Women’s Track Endurance Cycling Coach at USAC, says “Chloé was an integral part of the USA team at the Tokyo Olympics. Although she wasn’t at 100%, her contribution to the team’s success was vital. To have recovered to this level so quickly is itself a great achievement. To take a step back right now to ultimately take a big step forward is sensible, and it’s clear it’s the right thing to do physically and mentally for Chloé. Of course, we look forward to helping Chloé with her further recovery.”
CANYON//SRAM Racing Team Manager, Ronny Lauke says, “We can see that Chloé is not yet ready to compete in four-hour road races on the Women’s World Tour level week after week. However, she is a young, and very ambitious athlete who we are confident will have her best days coming. It’s a pity we’ll need to postpone her first race with the team until a later point until when she is ready, but after the heavy injury she had to deal with since her crash in Imola it requires further focus on rehabilitation.”
“Chloé’s journey and fight to come back in time to become national ITT champion and Olympic bronze medallist with her national team in the team pursuit prove what an excellent athlete Chloé is. We will support her to become 100% healthy and when the time has come we will bring her back to racing. We are very much looking forward to that day,” adds Ronny.
Chloé will now take some weeks completely off the bike, and following this, a more detailed plan for her return to training and racing will be made.