Chloé Dygert Owen of Sho Air-Twenty20 dominated the inaugural women’s only Colorado Classic. Her 15-mile solo attack on stage one set the bar high, and she continued to answer the call throughout the week, winning every single stage. Chloé finished the Colorado Classic with the overall leaders jersey, as well as the climbing, sprinting, and Best Young Rider jerseys.
This was quite an incredible race for Dygert Owen. It is not common at all for the same person to win every stage in a multi-day race. The fact that Chloé was able to ride off to a solo victory on the big climbing days–as well as the flat, fast sprint days– proves just how well-rounded of a road racer she has become.
Chloé comes from a strong track racing background, which would lead one to assume she would be right at home on the flat and fast circuits. Her climbing form was also incredible throughout the race. With two climbing intensive stages and two flatter, shorter circuits, this race was designed to put the all-around strong riders in the spotlight.
Who is Chloé Dygert Owen?
For those unfamiliar with the women’s cycling scene, let’s take a deeper look into who Chloé Dygert Owen is, and how she became such a commanding force on the road scene.
At just 22, Chloé has already had some big results. She won both the road and time trial junior world titles at 18 years old. From 2016 to 2018, she helped the U.S. win the gold medal in the team pursuit at the World Championships three times in a row.
Chloé also has the rare ability to suffer solo, which makes her well suited for solo breakaways in road racing. She has won two world titles in the individual pursuit. She not only won the world title, but set the world record. Chloé completed the 3K effort in 3:20.060 minutes, which made her average speed just about 33.5 mph.
Chloé had quite the set back in 2018. She started including more road racing into her schedule, and took an unfortunate crash at the Tour of California. She had to stop racing for the season in order to properly heal from a head injury. This crash did not stop her, however. After a solid winter of training, she won the overall at the Chico Stage Race, and the Joe Martin Stage Race.
Stage by Stage Recap
Stage 1: Steamboat Springs presented by Smartwool
If you remember from the preview summary, stage one had some big elevation and a 6 mile section of gravel. Brodie Chapman of Tibco-Silico Valley Bank was coming off a 140-mile gravel race, the inaugural SBT GRVL race in Steamboat Springs. Not only did she finish the race, she won the women’s race, and placed 15th overall. Although this race inevitably left her a bit fatigued, Chapman was a big favorite to take the win on stage one.
Dygert Owen was not about to hand Chapman the win, and rode very aggressively from the start. Dygert Owen launched an attack on the final climb that went unanswered. She held off the field, and rode the final 15 miles solo to victory. She finished 44 seconds ahead of second-place Whitney Allison of Hagens-Berman Supermint. Chapman finished third on the stage.
Stage 2: Avon presented by FirstBank
Brodie Chapman wanted to use this stage to gain some time back from Dygert Owen on the overall classification. Chapman rode hard from the start of Daybreak Ridge in an attempt to drop Chloé, but the two ended up together at the summit. Once again, Chloé set off on a solo attack and finished the stage 28 seconds ahead of Chapman, increasing her lead in the overall classification to 1 minute, 22 seconds.
Stage 3: Golden
Chloé was an early favorite for the downtown circuit races. With her experience and success on the track, it is clear she has the power in her legs to deliver big results on sprint stages. Stage three included a steep climb that continued to punish the field each lap. Chloé was patient on this stage, and waited until the start of the final lap to launch her attack. She crossed the line solo, once again, but this time only 5 seconds ahead of second place, her teammate Jennifer Valente.
Stage 4: Denver presented by Gates Corporation
The sprinters had a final go at a stage win for the final stage of the Colorado Classic. The circuit in downtown Denver was fast and flat, which primed the field for nonstop attacks over the eight laps. Even with attack after attack, the field stayed together until the last lap. Janelle Cole of LUX / Flexential launched an attack with one lap to go, but Chloé went with her. Dygert Owen stayed with Cole until the final three miles, where she rode off to another solo victory.
Clean Sweep
Chloé Dygert Owen secured every competitive jersey the Colorado Classic had to offer. She took home the Overall, QOM, Sprinter, and Best Young Rider jersey this year. Chloé had incredible team support throughout the week, which helped her team get second in the overall team classification.
The Best Team award goes to the team with the lowest cumulative time. The Canyon-Sram squad came out on top for the Best Team, only 5 minutes and 20 seconds faster than the Sho-Air Twenty20 team.
What’s next for Chloé?
Dygert Owen is hoping to carry this fitness to Road Worlds in Yorkshire, U.K. USA Cycling has yet to announce the roster for the women’s U.S. team, but with these recent results, I would imagine Dygert Owen will be selected for the squad. Chloé hopes to compete in both the individual time trial and the road race at Worlds. These are the two titles Chloé won at junior worlds, let’s see if she can do it again!
You can follow Chloé and her team on Twitter @chloedygert30 and @TWENTY20Pro
Kira Maicke has been an avid cyclist since 2010. She started racing road bikes in college for the University of Georgia and switched over to mountain biking after graduating and moving out west. When she’s not on one of her bikes, she’s out playing in the mountains with her husky, Semenuk.