Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) completed her comeback from injury and illness with her first World Tour victory at stage 2 of the 2023 Ride London Classique. It’s been setback after setback since 2020, but the powerful American flyer is finally back on the top step of the podium.
“We worked so hard for this moment, and I’m very thankful for everybody on the team, my personal team, my boyfriend, everybody. Without them, I wouldn’t be here, so I’m very appreciative of everybody who helped me get back to this spot,” Dygert said.
Dygert struggled to walk after claiming what was Canyon-SRAM’s first WWT victory since 2019 but she was delighted with her and the team’s performance on a near-perfect day.
Canyon-SRAM signed Dygert to ride in 2021, but she’s barely been able to put on her team’s jersey since due to a horrific leg injury sustained in a crash at the 2020 World Championships and being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus, and undergoing surgery to treat supraventricular tachycardia in 2022.
At RideLondon Classique, the former time trial World Champion won the reduced bunch sprint into Maldon ahead of Lizzie Deignan (Trek Segafredo) and teammate Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) after the chasing group reeled in the solo attacker, Maike van der Duin (also Canyon-SRAM), in the final 500 metres.
“It's been a long time coming for the team, and we worked so hard together. We had a great plan going into today with a lot of options, and we played our cards right. I’m just very happy to be able to pull it off," Dygert said.
Van der Duin launched her solo effort with 11km to go, and with no initial concerted chase forming, it seemed she might make it to the line alone, but as Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) experienced last year in the same town, she was caught inside the final few hundred metres.
Once she was caught, Paladin and Dygert worked well to get in front of Deignan going into the final corner, and Paladin legally slowed down in front of the Brit to give Dygert the best chance of victory.
“Maike was up the road, so the other teams had to work to bring her back, and it led Soraya and me perfectly into that final climb,” Dygert said. “I was able to come around for that final little bit, and we were able to go one and three. It was perfect."
Deignan looked as strong as in stage 1, where she finished third and attacked constantly in the final. She tried again to breakaway on North Hill, as did Henderson but was unable to unpick the Canyon-SRAM conundrum that faced her in the finale.
“It was hard to manage. They had a rider up the road that we were just catching, and Paladin and Chloe were both there, and I was like, 'Who’s going' so I got sandwiched a bit and hesitated,” Deignan said.
“I feel slightly disappointed in my final sprint because I didn’t feel like I really unleashed my full power, but props to Chloe. It’s pretty impossible sometimes to try and beat Chloe Dygert in a sprint like that, so I think second was a good result.”
Dygert has been on top form since her comeback race at La Vuelta Femenina where she finished podiumed three stages, and at the Vuelta a Burgos, where she looked even better, finishing second on stage 2 and fourth overall.
She’s also impressed on stages that wouldn’t particularly have suited her on paper as a time trial specialist in the past, but when asked what type of rider she was, she laughed, ‘I don’t know’, not wanting to pigeonhole herself into a category.
“I want to be an all-rounder, I guess, but I don’t want to become an all-rounder and lose my strengths,” Dygert said.
“I’m gonna focus on what my strengths are, and I can pull off some other things, but that also helps me be a better teammate as well, I can work for them and help them win. It's perfect."
Dygert also moved up to third in the general classification behind Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) and Deignan, and despite Kool crashing in the final 1.3km, she was able to remount and should still be the strongest on the flat final stage in and around central London on Sunday.
