The 'Chloe Dygert is a Phenomenom' Thread

[RedheadDane]

So... after clearing the table in Colorado back in August, she smashed her way to the ITT World title, gobbling up approximately a million riders on her way.
What does the future hold for this young lady who - according to some sources - aren't exactly that good in the bunch?

 

[red_flanders]

Seemingly a whole lot more winning.

 

[F_Cance]

I am really surprised now how she managed to NOT win the NC ITT.

 

[Angelo1985]

She was still coming back from her injury and still not in top shape.

 

[jaylew]

Yes, here's a link to a good article.

https://www.velonews.com/2019/09/news/commentary-chloe-dygert-owens-rainbow-comeback_500800

 

[Juan Pelota]

While the weather was better for the women, her ride would have finished 12th of the U23 MEN. She is only 22.

Unreal ride.

 

[yaco]

Her focus will be on the Olympics in 2020, so will have limited time on the road - Who knows if she will ever commit full-time to the road.

 

[Escarabajo]

While the weather was better for the women, her ride would have finished 12th of the U23 MEN. She is only 22.

Unreal ride.

That is big performance!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

What an animal, that was incredible

 

[JosephK]

She was like The Cannibal out there today, gobbling up one rider after another on the way to the gold medal.

 

[RedheadDane]

To be fair, she did have an advantage. No power-meter!

Chloe Dygert: 'My biggest advantage was I didn't ride with a power meter'

The 22-year-old completely dominated the elite women's time trial at the World Championships in Yorkshire

www.cyclingweekly.com

 

[Bolder]

She's a track rider at this point, so it seems a bit unfair to say "not good in the bunch." She won Colorado like Remco, basically riding solo TTs. I suppose she could slug it out on the road race circuit, but let's be honest here: There's very little money and even less glory in women's road racing, especially in the US. Winning a track gold medal or 3 in Tokyo -- where she'll have exposure on the world's biggest sporting television stage -- is a very honorable and realistic goal. And there are plenty of riders who like the challenge of going against the clock better than banging handlebars.

(I'd also love to see Ashton Lambie have a crack at WT-level ITTs also...he would probably crush any sub-10k flattish GT prologue)

 

[SafeBet]

Most impressive TT performance I've witnessed in my life.

 

[glassmoon]

She's a track rider at this point, so it seems a bit unfair to say "not good in the bunch." She won Colorado like Remco, basically riding solo TTs. I suppose she could slug it out on the road race circuit, but let's be honest here: There's very little money and even less glory in women's road racing, especially in the US. Winning a track gold medal or 3 in Tokyo -- where she'll have exposure on the world's biggest sporting television stage -- is a very honorable and realistic goal. And there are plenty of riders who like the challenge of going against the clock better than banging handlebars.

(I'd also love to see Ashton Lambie have a crack at WT-level ITTs also...he would probably crush any sub-10k flattish GT prologue)

I think tokyo 2020 schedule allows her to participate and win the road ITT too

 

[jaylew]

She's a track rider at this point, so it seems a bit unfair to say "not good in the bunch." She won Colorado like Remco, basically riding solo TTs. I suppose she could slug it out on the road race circuit, but let's be honest here: There's very little money and even less glory in women's road racing, especially in the US. Winning a track gold medal or 3 in Tokyo -- where she'll have exposure on the world's biggest sporting television stage -- is a very honorable and realistic goal. And there are plenty of riders who like the challenge of going against the clock better than banging handlebars.

She's definitely more than track rider but you have a point about the women's circuit in the US.

 

[Jamison]

Don't usually follow anything other than the Elite males, but yesterday happened to watch the Elite women and was quite impressed by Chloe's ride. Very impressive.

 

[Bolder]

She's definitely more than track rider but you have a point about the women's circuit in the US.

I was exaggerating a bit, but this article (the second half) makes the point that her pack experience is limited and she's at her best riding solo. That reminds me a a bit of a certain young buck who finished second in the men's elite TT today. https://www.cyclingnews.com/feature...nalysing-usa-womens-world-championships-team/

Actually, after reading it, I wonder if the US strategy ought to be sending CDO up the road at the 30.4 km mark , forcing the field to chase and hope that Rivera can sit on and save energy for a sprint if Chloe can't hold them off on her own. Am deffo going to watch the women's race now...

 

[pastronef]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1327685512824561664

View: https://twitter.com/chloedygert30/status/1327685512824561664

 

[Libertine Seguros]

TBF Canyon's statement (they posted one from their perspective about having talked to Chloe) almost looks like it was written before the ink was dry on the contract. They copped a lot of stick for the signing despite, on bike, it obviously being potentially the coup of the off-season. But off-bike, Chloe has the potential to be a liability. Women's cycling is a lot more dependent on social media for promotion and distribution than men's, so she will probably have to take extra-special care at first to stay on-message. Therefore I think this isn't so much the case of her already taking action since signing that has annoyed her new employers, it's her new employers putting their foot down to say that they don't want her stirring up the same social media controversy anymore, especially now, being based in Europe and on a WWT team, the audience for her social media presence will change and will come with their brand attached, so they're laying out a marker with her and trying to prevent any troublemakers from poking the bear, because they don't want to see their big investment go down the tubes or make them the villains of the piece either.

It will be interesting to see how she adapts to Europe. I have no qualms about how she will deal physically with the racing, especially at first with a road-track split so she'll be doing carefully selected races rather than a full on road calendar against all the stars all the time. But how she adapts to the off-bike stuff in Europe and/or with a European audience will be pretty key, I think.

 

[pastronef]

imo this wasnt writter before she signed. Canyon-Sram Insta and twitter got engulfed and overwhelmed by hysterical comments after they signed her. they had no idea of the madness, they were unprepared. so now they issued this statement

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If they were genuinely unprepared for such a reaction, then they've really not done their research. I mean, if a men's team announces they're signing Gianni Moscon, they should know that a lot of people are going to react negatively to Gianni Moscon the person, regardless of the positive impact that Gianni Moscon the rider will have. I mean, it's not like Chloe's points of view are not well-known. I had anticipated that they may have underestimated the extent of the antipathy Chloe has begun to attract (and the heavy social media dependency for branding and exposure will exacerbate this of course), but they had to be aware that it was going to be a divisive signing and they had pounced based on the feeling that the on-bike positive exposure and the potential tapping into that US market with a successful and high profile rider would outweigh any negative off-bike exposure or damage to the brand in other countries... right?

 

[pastronef]

yes, agree, "underestimated" is the right word. let´s say they knew, but had no idea of the hysteria-driven comments on Instagram, those were unexpected and totally bonkers. also, Moscon got pieces on websites and tv and forums and acted bad a few times. she almost did nothing compared to him

 

[saganftw]

twitter is a bizzare place, once you learn how to play it, you can hold and even act out your personal beliefs but never make them public on twitter because you cant have those debates in 140 letters or whatever it allows

 

[Kaptain Kool]

It's not that complicated and not even about politics. It's PR. Teams have sponsors. The sponsors want to sell things. To sell more things, most companies want to be as inclusive as possible in their target customers. Riders are hired / sponsored to represent a positive image of the company. If anything the rider does negatively effects the company image, the sponsors won't be happy.

Trek-Segafredo wouldn't be happy if a rider started posting or liking posts about how much they hate coffee. Movistar wouldn't like it if a rider started posting about a negative travel experience they had in a target market like Colombia. If a rider can't learn to understand this, then the rider probably shouldn't be on a big team. Dygert made the "cycling is for everyone" post, some maybe she's starting to understand now?

 

[Sciatic]

It's not that complicated and not even about politics. It's PR. Teams have sponsors. The sponsors want to sell things. To sell more things, most companies want to be as inclusive as possible in their target customers. Riders are hired / sponsored to represent a positive image of the company. If anything the rider does negatively effects the company image, the sponsors won't be happy.

Trek-Segafredo wouldn't be happy if a rider started posting or liking posts about how much they hate coffee. Movistar wouldn't like it if a rider started posting about a negative travel experience they had in a target market like Colombia. If a rider can't learn to understand this, then the rider probably shouldn't be on a big team. Dygert made the "cycling is for everyone" post, some maybe she's starting to understand now?

Good explanation and I’ve tried to give the same points in the Simmons thread. I think it’s particularly hard to understand for Americans who may, even if they follow cycling, may not understand how the ownership and management structure of the sport, which is so different than mainstream American sports (although some may argue NASCAR is similar) in a certain sense, Riders are hired essentially to be brand ambassadors for products, which may not even be related to cycling. It’s more like what many of us have in our own work lives if you work for a private company with some kind of social media effort to publicize its products. Except that if a cyclist makes an opinionated post that runs against the mission or marketing goals of the ownership, tens of thousands of people see it, as opposed to the 3 dozen followers I might have.