Chloe Dygert wins second elite women's US time trial national crown

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Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) sailed through the rain and won her second US women’s time trial title at the USA Cycling Pro Road Championships in Tennessee. She covered the 23.2km course in 31:06, giving her a nine-second advantage over runner-up Lauren Stephens (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB). 

Amber Neben finished third, 32 seconds back. Taylor Knibb (Trek-Segafredo) held on for fourth, two seconds behind Neben, as the quartet were the only riders to finish under 32 minutes.

"I'm super happy to pull off the win here. That was the goal, in order to qualify for the ITT at world championships," Dygert said at the finish. "Now it's about moving on to the training and preparation in order to prepare as best I can for the ITT in Glasgow."

Twenty-year-old Betty Hasse (CCB-Alpine Carbon) was crowned the U23 champion with her 17th place overall finish, a time of 34:29. Cassidy Hickey (Instafund La Prima) finished 39 seconds later and earned silver while Chloe Patrick (Serious Cycling) took the bronze.

Defending champion Leah Thomas was not on the starting ramp, having announced in December that she would take extended time off the bike due to back pain.

The field of 27 women competed across two circuits of the familiar 11.6km flat course as the water fell all morning to dampen roads and fill Melton Lake in Oak Ridge.

From the first wave of riders, Mallory Macrostie (United Cycling) took the hot seat with a time of 33:24, and big time gaps separated her from the seven other early finishers.

Knibb was the first of nine riders in the second wave, and she was the best of the bunch at both the intermediate time check and the finish line, taking the hot seat as the first rider going under 32 minutes, 31:41.

The final group included the favourites, and soon Dygert eclipsed Knibb’s mid-race best time by 11.3 seconds. The Trek rider still held a slight advantage over Stephens and Neben, with the duo pounding out the kilometres in light rain on the back half of the wet course, trying to close down Dygert’s pace.

Stephens went to the top of the leaderboard with her time of 31:15, putting Knibb in second. Then Dygert, the 2021 US time trial champion, blasted across the line with the best time. She waited for Neben, a four-time winner, to cross the line, 32 seconds down, before she knew she had a second elite ITT crown to go with her 2015 US junior title and the 2019 World title.

Across the same course in Oak Ridge as 2021, Dygert averaged 46.12 kph to win in a time of 30:11. The rain on Thursday added a full minute to her previous time but also slowed all competitors.

Dygert’s first road competition after 14 months away from racing due to a series of physical ailments came in May this year at La Vuelta Femenina. Later in May, she captured two podiums at Vuelta a Burgos Feminas and then finished second overall with one stage victory at RideLondon Classique. She had missed most of 2022 due to Epstein Barr Virus as well as separate surgeries for her leg and for a tachycardia issue with her heart. 

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