It was a gray and rainy morning in Knoxville, Tennessee, for the start of the U.S. National Pro Road Championships. The country’s best time trialists sought shelter underneath team tents, awnings and car hatches as they prepared for today’s race against the clock.
The course consisted of a 7.3-mile lap with 400ft of climbing per lap. The women made their way round the slippery wet lap twice. The men four times.
Back in form: Chloe Dygert storms to a second National Time Trial victory
(Image credit: USA Cycling)
In the women’s race, all eyes were on the former national and world time trial champion, Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM). The 26-year-old is on a bit of a comeback tour after an horrific leg injury and other ailments left her on the sidelines for the past couple of seasons.
This season, however, she appears to be returning to good form with multiple podium finishes at La Vuelta Femenina and Vuelta a Burgos, and a win at the RideLondon Classique. In addition to showing her return to race form, the performance at the national championships is weighty in order to qualify for the UCI Time Trial World Championship in Glasgow this August, where Dygert hopes to regain the rainbow stripes she last held in 2019.
Dygert wasn’t the only former world champion to line up in Tennessee, however. Competition to her potential stars-and-stripes glory would surely come from 2008 world champion Amber Neben. The 48-year-old veteran of the peloton is a multi-time national and Pan-American time trial champion who’s never to be discounted. Others favored for stars-and-stripes glory included 2021 US road racing champion Lauren Stephens (EF Education – TIBCO – SVB), who’s been on the time trial podium several times already, and newcomer Taylor Knibb (Trek-Segafredo).
A triathlon world champion and Olympic medalist, Knibb announced only this week that she had signed with Trek-Segafredo mid-season with the intent of combining a small road racing calendar with her regular triathlon schedule.
The 25-year-old was ninth off the starting ramp, and soon found herself in the hot seat with a time of 31:41. It wasn’t until the top contenders took to the course that Knibb’s time was challenged.
At the halfway mark, only Dygert managed to outpace the triathlete, started the second half of the course with an 11-second advantage. But it was on the back stretch of the course where, despite the ongoing light rain, the action played out. Crossing the line with a time of 31:15,…