Speed dreams
Being in the vicinity of Chloé Dygert on race day offers a unique insight into what it takes to be the very best. Before time trials she is the epitome of focus, able to visualise every part of the course, and exactly how she is going to ride it.
“When I visualise a race, I know it like the back of my hand. That’s the beauty of the sport for me. Visualising how you’re going to start off that ramp into whatever wind you’re hitting first. Thinking about your leg speed, what cadence you’ll need to run. How to keep your heart rate under control. How you’ll go into that first turn. In your aero bars, or not. And so on.”
You can see it before she sets off. Taking a quiet moment to herself, often laid down in the back of the team camper, playing the straights and corners she’s about to take, one by one. And this photographic memory works both ways too – Chloé can remember every big-ticket race she’s done.
“I can still tell you to this day every turn of the time trial I did at the Richmond Worlds [in 2015], I can still play the race back in my head. In Yorkshire [2019], I knew how many times I had to cross the centre line before the first time-check. I can still hear the moment I left the ramp onto the brick when I started. I can still hear the raindrops on my helmet that day...”
What most also don’t realise is that away from these moments of performance focus, Chloe is lightness personified: fun, thoughtful, caring for her team mates. It all comes down to racing in the end, however, and it is rare to discover an athlete not just so attuned to her performance, and her bike, but also able to talk about it in such a way:
“Winning a bike race is fun. But winning a bike race when it all comes together, and you’re in unison with your body, strength, fitness, breathing and heart is the most beautiful, unimaginable, barely explainable thing. And I’m so excited and thankful for all my Canyon bikes to be able to perform at this highest level so I can feel this speed to help me win and accomplish my goals.”