By Martyn Herman
GLASGOW (Reuters) – It has been a while since American rider Chloe Dygert powered around a velodrome to a gold medal with her rivals seemingly pedalling through treacle far behind.
But nearly three years after suffering an horrific career-threatening leg injury at the world road championships time trial in Italy, the 26-year-old proved on Thursday she is back.
Dygert, the golden girl of American cycling, reduced the individual time trial field to also-rans on the opening day of the UCI World Championships in Glasgow.
So dominant was she around the polished boards of the Chris Hoy Velodrome that she caught her opponent in the final lap of the 3km event in which riders start on opposite sides of the 250m oval and victories are usually measured in bike lengths.
Germany’s Franziska Brausse never really stood a chance.
Dygert’s time of 3 minutes 17.5 seconds earned her an 11th world title but her first since winning individual and team pursuit golds at the Berlin World Track Championships in 2020.
Yet her initial reaction appeared to be one of disappointment as her time was not lower than the world record she already owns in the discipline – perhaps a result of a lack of real opposition and “heavy” track conditions.
“It’s been a long three years to get back to here,” Dygert, who was left with a deep laceration in her leg after careering over a roadside barrier and down a ravine on a high-speed corner in northern Italy in 2020, said after soaking in the anthem.
“After 2020 and Tokyo, I worked with the medical team and staff at USA Cycling and Canyon/SRAM (her road team) to get me to the point where my body could compete again.
“The goal is always to go faster but this ride felt good.”
When she left the Berlin worlds in 2020 it seemed she was set for domination at the Tokyo Olympics.
But the pandemic struck, the Games were postponed and when they were held in 2021, Dygert was a shadow of herself.
She did take a bronze in the track team pursuit but on the road, she was seventh in the individual time trial, having been world champion in 2019 in Harrogate when she blew a high-class field to pieces over the Yorkshire hills.
Dygert, whose marriage to cyclist Logan Owen ended in divorce in 2020, has had three surgeries on her leg. The first straight after the crash that left doctors describing her injury as looking like a wound from a war zone, then two more to repair the scar that resembled a shark bite.
She also suffered from Epstein-Barr virus in 2022 and a heart condition called Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) that causes an excessive heart beat and required surgery.
So the odds were not exactly stacked in her favour as she searched to recover the speed that few can match on two wheels.
But on the evidence of Thursday, she has overcome them.
“Wearing the rainbow stripes is always an honour and I’m proud to be able to wear them again,” she said.
Dygert has further opportunities to grow her medal collection in Glasgow, in the track team pursuit and then in the women’s road time race and time trial.
“I’m taking this one event at a time. Next up for me is the team pursuit where the girls and I are focused on bringing home another medal for the U.S. I’ll spend a day or two resting, and then focus on the time trial.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
