Chloe Dygert came into the Paris Olympic Games women’s road race having already won a bronze in the individual time trial a week ago and with the focus being for Sunday to act as part of the run toward the hunt for gold in the Team Pursuit, which begins Tuesday.
Still Dygert and her road race and Team Pursuit teammate Kirsten Faulkner are racers after all, so when they found themselves in the reduced peloton as the competition jumped into high gear on the finish circuits in Paris chasing that immediate medal opportunity became a clear priority. So did avoiding the mayhem that could not only derail this medal chase but also the next one.
For a second time at these Games, Dygert encountered the mayhem when she crashed. She had already gone down hard in the rain during the time trial, as did many riders, but still finished one second behind silver medallist Anna Henderson (Great Britain) and settled for bronze. This time she slid out in a dry corner, but in a pivotal moment of the race.
However, this time teammate Faulkner picked up the momentum and sailed away to gold. Dygert regrouped to finish 15th, but shared the excitement of the Team USA victory.
“Any time Team USA is on the top step, that’s awesome. I’m really happy for her - first Olympics, first gold medal. That’s amazing,” Dygert said to Cyclingnews and a few gathered media outlets after her teammate Faulkner clasped the gold medal.
“She's been having a great year this year, super impressive. She's just shown over and over again that she has that power for those finals. She put a lot of work in and she's doing a lot of track, and I think that has really helped her.
"That makes the crash worth it. Faulkner had an amazing ride,” she added in post-race comments.
'A little bumpy'
The crash occurred as the Côte de la butte Montmartre ascent approached for the first time with 48km to go and the last two survivors of the break, Fariba Hashimi (Afghanistan) and Hannah Tserakh (Neutral), were in sight of the group including the race favourites. There was a touch of wheels on the inside of a right-hand corner of the narrow, cobbled section; it was Dygert. Also hitting the deck was Elise Chabbey (Switzerland), who fell when Dygert’s crash struck the Swiss rider’s back wheel.
“I watched a video of it [the crash] when I came across the line and it looked like I had the inside line and the girl next to me just kind of got pinched and nicked my bars. Just, you know, was unlucky there and we both kind of went down, so kind of a bummer,” Dygert said.
The incident caused a delay as riders tried to find a narrow path to go around the two riders, including favourites Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) as well as Dutch riders Demi Vollering and Lorena Wiebes, but Dygert’s teammate Faulkner had been near the front and avoided the crash. She forged on from that position, and while there were various configurations out the front and an array of attacks from the small group of around ten at the head of the race, it was ultimately Faulkner who came out on top, defying the pursuit behind.
The Dutch riders Wiebes and Vollering, both favourites to win the race, were among those who had been on the chase and used energy to try to bridge back to the front. Dygert rode hard to join them after her fall.
"Such a bummer. There's nothing I can do at that point, just to get back on the bike and keep my head on, and try to go as fast as possible. But once I got back up, there was no point of working,” Dygert said, as once she had worked back to that chase group she went to the front and looked back to see Wiebes close by.
She then decided to pull back as she did not want to help the Dutch rider bridge to the front.
“You know, at that point, I knew Faulkner was up the road," said Dygert. "So there was really no point of me, once I got in the Wiebes group, [to continue to attack]. I knew if Wiebes comes to the line, Wiebes is winning.”
She admitted that without race radios she did not know how much of a gap Faulkner had, but knew there was a chance.
“I was so far back, the team car kind of came to me," she said. "Every time it came past I asked what was going on and I knew Faulkner was up the road there.
“She’s worked hard. She doesn’t cut corners, and she gives it all. She’s very meticulous and she really does everything right, the diet and nutrition. She has a lot of heart, so for her to be able to pull this off, that’s really big for her.”
Dygert has her eye on her first gold on the track next, having won a silver and a bronze so far in Team Pursuit at the Olympics in Tokyo and Rio and bronze in the time trial in Paris. She and Faulkner head directly to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome for Team Pursuit, joined by Lily Williams, Olivia Cummins and Tokyo Omnium gold medalist Jen Valente.
Dygert said she hoped any injuries from the fall were just superficial, calling the aches ‘a little bumpy’.
“We're gonna go see if my shin needs some stitches or not. Just go into recovery mode now,” she said.
“At the end of the day, I have really good fitness coming out of that, and knowing that my fitness is there to be able to chase back like I did. So I'm pretty happy with that.”
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