Dygert-Owen wins the Colorado Classic

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Chloe Dygert-Owen (Sho-Air Twenty20) soloed to her fourth straight stage at the Colorado Classics to make it a clean sweep for the week and seal the final overall title. The American rider made it four-from-four with a decisive attack with 5km to go to leave her breakaway companion Janelle Cole (LUX-Flexential) and take a memorable win. As well as the four stage wins, and the GC, Dygert-Owen won every jersey going at the event. 

Cole hung on to take a well-deserved second place on the stage after she initiated the winning move, while Emma White (Rally UHC Cycling) finished at the front of the chasing bunch to take third on the day.

Aside from the four stage wins and the overall victory, Dygert-Owen also took home the jerseys for best young rider, sprint classification and mountains classification.

"We had a different role to play today in the race,” Dygert-Owen told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight. “It would be Jen [Valente] for the sprint, or if I got off I got off, or any other teammates, too. So it was a perfect way to end the week, and a perfect send-off for our teammate Allie [Dragoo] as her retirement.

"I kind of forgot that there was a sprint there, so I kind of lucked out," Dygert-Owen said. "And then again I looked back and everyone was hanging their heads again, so I decided to just send it. But then it came back and Janelle [Cole] put in an awesome attack and I just went with that and rode with her for alap. I had good legs so I went for it again."

For Cole's part, the 22-year-old was happy to have made the winning move with the race's strongest rider.

"I was hoping she would follow," Cole told Cyclingnews. "Honestly, I knew that nobody was trying to take the jersey from Chloe, and I’m like 10 minutes down on GC, so no one would care. I figured this is my last race, why not throw down?

"It was pretty obvious to anyone watching who was doing the bulk of that work, and I think it would have been pretty crappy of me to try and poach [the win] from her. So I’m happy for Chloe. She won that flat out, obviously. I’m just happy to be on the podium.”

How it unfolded

The final stage of the 2019 Colorado Classic took place in downtown Denver on a 9.2km course that started and finished in the shadow of Coors Field. The peloton raced eight laps on the circuit for a total of 74.1km.

The afternoon start saw temperatures soar to the upper-90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a strong wind buffeted the riders throughout the day, with a strong tailwind blowing down the finishing straight. The flat course offered up three intermediate sprints at 21.2km, 42.4km and 63.5km.

Time bonuses of 3, 2 and 1 second, along with corresponding points, were up for grabs at the sprints, and bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds were on offer for the top three at the finish, although Dygert-Owen’s 1:36 lead in the general classification rendered the finish bonuses moot.

Fearless Femme’s Rachel Langdon, wearing the race’s ‘most badass’ jersey from the previous day, was the first to jump clear of the 71-rider peloton. Langdon pushed through the wind and heat and started the second lap with 30 seconds over the peloton.

The bunch pulled Langdon back during the second lap, which ended with the first intermediate sprint of the day.

Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank’s Emily Newsom took the maximum points at the sprint ahead of Flavia Oliveira (Fearless Femme) and Tiffany Cromwell (Canyopn-SRAM). A small group tried to breakaway during the lull after the sprint, but the ever-vigilant field soon brought them back.

More small groups tried to get away on lap 3, but the tight, short course that was littered with intermediate sprints motivated the field to keep the escape attempts in check, andf the bunch started lap 4 all together.

Lap 4 wasa bonus cash lap, and the crowdfunded prize, which was split between the sprint winner and a local charity, climbed to nearly $8,700

Pan Amercian Championships road race winner Ariadna Gutierrez (Swapit Agolico) took her chance off the front and built a gap of 30 seconds before Gutierrez started fading and was caught.

The field approached the bonus sprint together, with Canyon-SRAM going to the front for Tanja Erath, but Jennifer Valente (Sho-Air Twenty20) infiltrated the German team’s train and scooped up the cash at the line. Erath was second, and Dygert-Owen grabbed third.

Fearless Femme’s Oliveria slipped away again on lap 6, and a group quickly bridged to her and got a quick 10 seconds on the pack. Joining Oliveira in the move were Madeline Bemis (USA Cycling), Krista Doebel-Hikock (Rally UHC), Amber Neben (Cogeas Mettler), Edwige Pitel (Cogeas Mettler), Tatiana Guderzo (BePink) and Justine Barrow (LUX-Fluxential).

That bunch wasn’t happy letting the move go up the road and soon brought the breakaway back.

Dygert-Owen appeared to get bored riding in the protection of the bunch to defend her jersey and started showing herself as a presence at the head of the race, chasing down attacks by herself and sitting on the front in what looked like an effort to goad the others to pick up the pace.

Dygert-Owen and overall runner-up Brodie Chapman (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) battled for the runner-up points, with Dygert-Owen taking it at the line with a bike throw. Oliveira was third.

The race leader wasn’t satisfied with that effort, however, and set off in a two-rider breakaway with Janelle Cole (LUX-Flexential). The duo had 20 seconds on the bunch with 15km to go.

When the gap went up five seconds over the next half kilometre, Canyon-SRAM came to the front to power the chase, but with 10km to go the gap was up to 40 seconds. The leaders extended their advantage to 50 seconds five kilometers later, with Dygert-Owen attacking almost immediately.

Full results