"I think me trying to be a better teammate on and off the bike really helped us pull through" - Chloé Dygert on Team Pursuit gold success

They made it. Quartet Chloé Dygert, Jen Valente, Lily Williams and newcomer Kristen Faulkner pulled off a stunning upset against New Zealand in the gold medal final of Wednesday's Team Pursuit. After a bronze and two silvers, everything finally clicked for USA's most important event on the track programme.

"When I came into the program in 2016, this was the medal that USA cycling was aiming for more than any other discipline," Dygert begins at Cyclingnews after the race. "This has been the focus from the beginning of my career, and there's a lot of support in this program. And with the success that we have had, we were able to bring in strong riders. We recruited Lily, we recruited Faulkner and now we're able to finally pull it off."

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The arrival of Faulkner breathed new life into the team, but her strength alone wasn't enough to bring home the gold medal. For that also the time trial world champion Dygert needed not only to push the best of her power but also to cooperate with her teammates.

"I was very stubborn - I think me kind of getting over my myself and trying to be a better teammate on and off the bike, I think that really helped pull it together a lot," Dygert said. "I had a whole road program just like the other girls did, when I was focused on the time trial I wasn't always there with the team, and I know that was really hard for them." Forming better relationships off the bike, she said, helped them on the bike.

In the end, it was just enough to defend the gold medals against the New Zealand, however there was a strong impression that the US women could have gone even faster with more cohesion. Williams and Faulkner were clearly struggling to keep up with Dygert's powerful pulls in the final laps. It might have cost them a world record. "I don't exactly know what happened," Dygert said, "But it's a win, and that's really all we wanted. Anything extra would have great but the gold medal is what we aimed for today."

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