Chloé Dygert’s relationship with the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under has become a useful measuring stick, not just for her form, but for how she is coping with a career that has had to be rebuilt in public.
Last season, the American began her year in South Australia and left with a WorldTour stage win, her first UCI road victory in two years. The momentum did not follow her through the rest of 2025, and as she returns to Adelaide to open 2026, Dygert has framed it in unusually direct terms.
“I’m sick of losing,” she told reporters in a pre-race press conference, as quoted by Cyclingnews. “This year, I’m really focusing on making sure it doesn’t happen much.”
It is a quote that reads like frustration, but in context, it is more reflective than explosive. Dygert was not selling a comeback storyline. She was describing a rider who knows what her best looks like, knows how rarely she has been able to access it in recent years, and is trying to control what can be controlled.
Photo Credit: GettyA strong start last year, then silence
Dygert’s 2025 season began sharply.
She won a stage at the Tour Down Under, and backed it up with a second place at the Surf Coast Classic in Victoria. After that, the podiums disappeared. She described last year as difficult “on and off the bike”, and spoke about the challenge of managing setbacks without letting them define the season.
“I’ve had a lot of years of experience to let it bother me in the moment and then kind of move on and take a step forward,” she said, via Cyclingnews. “This year, I’m just looking forward to learning from the mistakes and trying to stay healthy.”
There is a realism in the way she talks about health too. She acknowledged that not everything is within her control, but stressed that she is trying to be more deliberate about the parts that are.
“Some of that’s out of my control, but there’s some things in my control,” she added.
Photo Credit: Chris AuldThe crash that still shapes everything
Any discussion of Dygert’s results eventually circles back to one moment, the crash at the 2020 World Championships time trial, where she hit a barrier on a descent and suffered a serious leg injury. She said the impact remains present daily, including away from racing.
“It takes a toll on my life every day, even off the bike,” she said, quoted by Cyclingnews. “I’ll never be the same rider as I was before and to me, that’s the hardest thing. Every day I have to wake up and putting my socks on hurts.”
Dygert’s comments were not framed as complaint. They were closer to acceptance, paired with a clear sense of perspective about what could have happened.
“I very easily could not have a leg right now,” she said. “So I’m just happy to be sitting here and doing everything that I can to try to be on that top step.”
For a rider whose pre crash ceiling looked almost limitless in time trialling, and whose career tally still reflects her ability to win across disciplines, it is an unusually candid window into what high performance looks like when it is shaped by permanent limitation.
Hunger, but with fewer risks
Now 29, and entering her sixth season with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Dygert described a mindset that has shifted with age, even if the drive has not.
“You let things go when you get older,” she said after reflecting on how she used to replay mistakes in her head. “You grow up a little bit, you take probably a little less risk, no more guardrails, but yeah, the hunger still remains.”
That line captures the tension that defines her recent seasons. She wants results that match her talent, but she also knows the cost of chasing them without restraint.
Why Tour Down Under matters as a season opener
The Women’s Tour Down Under has become one of the sport’s truest openers, a race that asks immediate questions of form with climbing and repeated changes of rhythm. Dygert’s chances will begin on a stage that finishes on the lower slopes of Willunga Hill, before the race heads into more selective terrain in the Adelaide Hills and then finishes with a stage featuring two ascents of Corkscrew Road.
Dygert called it “a great way to open up the season”, and said she was simply happy to be back, again via Cyclingnews. This year’s start list includes all 14 Women’s WorldTour teams, which only sharpens the point. If you are near the front here, you are doing so against the deepest possible field.
The recent wins that frame her expectations
Even in a career that has been disrupted, Dygert’s palmares still carries weight, especially in the time trial.
Key victories mentioned in the season context include:
- Tour Down Under stage win in 2025
- World Championships ITT in 2023
- US national titles in 2023, including road race and time trial
- Earlier major success including World Championships ITT in 2019
Those results explain why her words land the way they do. This is not a rider trying to convince herself she belongs. It is a rider who has already lived at the top level, and is measuring everything against that standard.
Dygert arrives in Australia with the same fundamental question she has carried for several seasons now, how often can she access her best, and how consistently can she stay close to it. The difference this time is that she is saying the quiet part out loud.
