ZÜRICH, Switzerland — Brownsburg’s Chloe Dygert was bronze medalist Sunday in the individual time trial of road cycling’s World Championships in Switzerland.
Grace Brown of Australia finished first, becoming the first to win the event at worlds and the Olympics in the same year.
Brown, 32, rode the 29.9-kilometer course (18.5 miles) from Gossau to Zurich in 39 minutes, 16 seconds.
She finished 17 seconds ahead of the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering and 56 seconds ahead of Dygert. Vollering was coming off second place at the Women’s Tour de France.
Brown said afterward she still intends to retire at the end of the season.
Dygert, 27, won two medals at the Paris Olympics, gold in team pursuit and bronze in the time trial despite a fall along the course. She was world champion in the time trial in 2019, when she won by a record 92 seconds at Yorkshire, England, and in 2023.
Seventy riders started on a course that included nine kilometers of hilly terrain.
Dygert has had a series of surgeries since her crash in the 2020 worlds at Imola, Italy, where a metal barrier sliced through her thigh and could have ended her career. Last autumn, she had another surgery on her left quadriceps to remove scar tissue. Preparation for the Olympics was impaired by an Achilles injury, crashes in spring classics in Belgium, and a bout of COVID-19.
Dygert has signed a new contract with Canyon/SRAM until 2026.
"I can be the strongest person in the world with my mind, but with how the peloton is today, with how the girls are today, if anybody has a setback continuously each year you're starting from ground zero,” she told Cycling News. “I'm still just waiting, and I'm hoping to have just a year or two, just consistency and health, just to feel strong and feel like my own self again.
"Since my accident, I don't think I've gone more than maybe six or seven months without something happening. This year, it's probably been the hardest year since my accident.”
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
