2025 starts off with a bang for Tour Down Under stage winner Chloe Dygert - "Last year, nothing really went according to plan"
Cycling
Chloe Dygert opted with a different type of start to her 2025 season, travelling to Australia and racing the Tour Down Under. Her performances were a reflection of 2024 where she achieved good results but not quite the ideal goal, but she was happy nevertheless to win the final stage with an impressive sprint.
“We started the race with the ambition to win the final classification, but a stage win was also a goal," the American rider admitted in a post-race interview, with honest words. "Today we went all out for the stage win, since we were no longer really competing for the classification. I am very happy that it worked out".
The 28-year old hoped to be in the fight for the ochre jersey this week, but this was not the case as she struggled in the Old Willunga Hill and lost over three minutes to the eventual winner Noemi Rüegg. However it wasn't lack of form for Dygert certainly, as in today's hilly circuit in Stirling she proved to be the strongest.
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The peloton was severely reduced with the strong pace throughout the day and only around 20 riders made it to the final meters in the front group. Out of these, Dygert launched a terrifying sprint which saw no-one even be able to follow her wheel. It was a comfortable win, her first of the year.
“But this win gives me a huge boost to work even harder and stay injury-free. I’m really happy that I’m healthy again now," she says. It was important to start off her season with a win, her first in over a year on the road. In 2024 she put out great performances including a third place at both Olympic and World time-trial championships, and then surprised to a second behind Lotte Kopecky in the Zurich road race. But it was a year where she could not pin 1 victory to her name with Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto.
“I am very happy. Last year, nothing really went according to plan. Yes, we won Olympic gold with the American team in the team pursuit and I won two more World Championship medals, but those are not the results I had hoped for. There are no excuses though: it just wasn’t my year. The competition was just better.”
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Chloe Dygert shines in Stirling to take the Hyundai Stage 3 win!! 🌟🚀@SantosLtd @HyundaiAus @WMNcycling @UCI_WWT @7Sport #TourDownUnder pic.twitter.com/rnnbcglpUp
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 19, 2025
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- yeah, there are some sports that do a season long WORLD CUP WINNER, or some version of it, but even most of THOSE also have a World Championships EVENT. cyclocross is in that category (though the value of the world cup is watered down there due to there being THREE separately scored championship series).OCexile07-02-2025
- There are so many different sports, and equally many where this is not the case. Football has all sorts of differing championships. Swimming and Athletics are more like cycling, cyclocross is different again. Track cycling is often like tennis. BMX is more like rowing but in the end it’s hard to name more than a couple of sports that have exactly the same championship qualifying and set-up. Yes, in motorsport you usually have to participate in a long line of yearly events to win a championship but when is the last time you saw a driver do any 2 of F1, Rallye, Nascar etc in a season? Practically impossible so don’t forget, if you want to see the likes of WVA and MVDP or even Pidcock and others in several disciplines, it may not be wise to bog them down into choosing one.Mistermaumau07-02-2025
- Perhaps, or perhaps the UCI should be obliged to provide a minimum number of volunteers for each of the higher categories of races, showing they take the problem of safety a bit seriously when it comes to practical issues?Mistermaumau06-02-2025
- If she was the only rider signed at Ineos, did they even have a team or was she always riding alone? Can someone explain what the situation there please? actually wasMistermaumau06-02-2025
- I was watching the race this morning, and that was an incredibly sketchy moment. Hopefully Maxim van Gils wasn't too seriously injured, and will be able to return to the peloton soon. Perhaps the UCI needs to be handing out yellow cards to race organizers as well.
santiagobenites06-02-2025 - In most sports they have a season long series, so the best over a year is the World champion; not a 'one off' event were the best can have an off day and not win I wish cycling had this model, as you can't fluke a season long series... .wipperman9506-02-2025
- What had an impact, taking one straight line instead of another? You can see 2 riders, each takes a different option and you see no difference, in fact at one point it even looks as if the bike lane is the harder path to keep up speed, which as anyone who uses them knows, is not impossible. Also, if you consider it had enough effect concerning the 2s then why are you ignoring the actions Skjelmose took and admitted to which then must also have impacted back in the opposite way. I think you are looking at the reversal from the wrong point of view, the ds was the wrong decision so there is no need to explain the reversal, had the judge interpreted the rule properly in the first place there’d never have been a dq. Hope he doesn’t get to work at Paris-Roubaix with his way of seeing things, there’ll be no winner.Mistermaumau06-02-2025
- I agree they need to explain the reversal. With only a 2 second difference in time, they can’t argue that it had no impact on the results.JoeyB06-02-2025
- Organiser obviously lacking volunteers to control crossings. Very lucky despite the falls, if that driver hadn’t had the reflex, skill or sense to reverse the hell back out the way it would have been a lot worse.Mistermaumau06-02-2025
- What corner? Zero advantage. Did you notice him using the sidewalk that is forbidden by rules? No, he used the side of the normal side of the road that at certain points very naturally and straight (actually dangerous to have to try to avoid during a race or a TT) turns into a bike lane (how ironic it would be if cyclists now got disqualified for using lanes designed for them, the last laugh for the anti-woke).Mistermaumau06-02-2025