Chloe Dygert crashes again, finishes 15th in Olympics road race; U.S. teammate wins gold
PARIS – She came. She rode. She crashed.
Chloe Dygert is down but never out, but she has been as unlucky on the roads of Paris as Michael Andretti has been at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 27-year-old Brownsburg rider crashed Sunday in the road race, as she did in the individual time trial, and finished 15th at the Olympic Games.
Shockingly, the gold medalist was U.S. teammate Kristen Faulkner, a 31-year-old Alaskan. She was a rower at Harvard who began competitive cycling only seven years ago.
“This is a dream come true. I'm still looking at that finish line sign wondering how my name got there,” Faulkner said.
The United States’ only other medals in the road race were in the inaugural one in 1984, when Connie Carpenter and Rebecca Twigg took gold and silver.
'Worth all the hours.' Plainfield, Purdue diver Daryn Wright prepares for Paris
More from Paris: ISU thrower Erin Reese doesn't advance but 'excited for the future.'
Faulkner’s time over the 158-kilometer course (98 miles) was 3 hours, 59 minutes, 23 seconds.
Marianne Vos of the Netherlands took silver and Lotte Kopecky of Belgium bronze, both in 4:00:21, or 58 seconds behind.
Kopecky was the reigning world champion and finished fourth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Dygert went down with about 45 kilometers left, splintering the entire peloton. She resumed racing but had too much to make up and too little time left.
She made her way back into the peloton and stayed in the race to chase back what was left of the group. To finish 15th after that crash was perhaps as great an achievement as battling back for bronze in the individual time trial.
After looking up at the video board and realizing her teammate had won, she said:
“Faulkner had an amazing ride, she’s been riding great this year. This is so impressive. She has shown repeatedly that she has that power for those final moments. She’s put a lot of work in, she’s been doing a lot on the track, so that’s helped her.
“I am super happy for her, this is huge. Her first Olympics... what a way to leave it with a gold medal.”
There was some question whether Dygert would race at all after falling on a slick surface during the individual time trial and developing muscle spasms.
Next for her is track cycling’s team pursuit, in which qualifying is Tuesday and the medals awarded Wednesday.
Dygert’s crash and grisly thigh injury at the 2020 World Championships in Italy still affects her riding. In this season, her training was interrupted first by an Achilles injury and later by a bout of COVID-19.
At Tokyo, she was 31st in the road race and seventh in the individual time trial. She won a bronze medal in team pursuit after a silver at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The road race started and finished in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on the Pont d’lena that crosses the Seine between the Trocadero Gardens and the Champ de Mars.
From Trocadero, the course was comprised of a 110-kilometer loop in the southwest suburbs before returning to Paris and passing twice on a loop around Montmartre and to the Portes de Pantin and des Lilas at the eastern end of Paris. There was a final passage on the Cote de la Butte Montmarte before descent to the Seine and returning to the Trocadero.
There were nine ascents and 1,700 meters of climbing, less than in most races.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Chloe Dygert crashes, Kristen Faulkner wins gold in Olympics road race
