Chloé Dygert was so excited, but might be battered again after false start in Australia

After the race won by Maggie Coles-Lyster, CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto spoke of “a bitter end to the day”. The team had been eager to sprint with Dygert, but after multiple crashes in the finale, the team leader also went down. “Chloé crashed hard and is on her way to the hospital. We’ll share updates as they become available.”

It, of course, is not the first time Dygert has ended up in hospital — her crash at the 2020 World Championships in the individual time trial is still vividly remembered by every cycling fan who watched. After her major breakthrough winning the world time trial title in 2019 in Harrogate, Dygert was on her way to dominating again at the 2020 Worlds in Imola — until she suddenly smashed into a guardrail in a corner.

Dygert suffered a very serious thigh injury, in which 80 % of her quadriceps muscle was damaged and major tendons were affected. The American underwent multiple surgeries and previously said she still experiences chronic pain in her leg due to scar tissue. It was a small miracle that in 2021 she already finished seventh in the World Championships time trial.

At CANYON//SRAM she was given all the time and space to fully return. In 2022 she raced only once, but in 2023 she showed her strength with a stage win at the RideLondon Classique and U.S. national titles in both the road race and time trial. Her big comeback was complete when she became world champion in the time trial again that same year.

In the years that followed, we saw Dygert increasingly in European races. After her debut in the Giro Donne in 2023, she rode the Tour de France Femmes in both 2024 and 2025 and also finished third in the time trial at the Paris Olympics. But her victories since her 2023 world title have been few — her only win came in Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under in 2025.

That had to change for 2026, Dygert said this winter with ambition to Cyclingnews. She said she was “looking forward to learning from mistakes made over so many years of experience and taking a step forward. I want to stay healthy, even though I can’t control everything. I’m tired of losing — so I want that to happen as little as possible this year.”

Even the fact that putting on her socks still hurts every day due to her leg injury is something Dygert has learned to live with. She will never be the same rider she was before her crash. The new setback at the Tour Down Under will therefore hit even harder.