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Chloé Dygert continued her superb recent run of form on Saturday, pulverizing her own world individual pursuit record at the track world championships near Copenhagen, Denmark.
The American rider recorded a time of 3:15.663 in the qualification round, more than a second faster than the 3:16.937 she set in Berlin in February 2020.
It marked the fifth improvement she has made since March 2018, when she beat Sarah Hammer’s old mark with 3:20.072, and highlights her incredible talent against the clock.
The rider from Indiana went into the track worlds with a number of fine performances behind her.
She placed second in the road race and third in the time trial at the recent road world championships in Switzerland.
The Canyon-SRAM rider was also runner-up in the Classic Lorient Agglomération, and third in the Olympic Games TT.
However Dygert’s ambition of taking what would have been a fifth individual pursuit world title was frustrated in the final later on Saturday.
She was up against the Briton Anna Morris, who had been almost two seconds slower than her in qualifying, but had more in the tank in the battle for gold.
Dygert got off to a rapid start but Morris fought back to be just .031 behind after 1km of racing.
The gap went out to 0.189 after 2km, yet the Briton accelerated inside the final 1000 meters and ended up recording 3:16.560 to scoop gold.
She was over a second faster than her earlier time, beating Dygert by 0.317 of a second.
The American rider will be disappointed to lose out on gold again, not least because of her near-misses in the Paris Olympics and road worlds.
However she was visibly in pain after smashing her own record in qualification, and was over a second off that time in the final.
She does have the consolation of a new time which could last decades, or even longer.
In May 2023 the UCI announced that the women’s individual pursuit will change from 3km to 4km, starting on January 1 2025.
Dygert recently fractured her nose prior to stage two of the Simac Ladies Tour, with a world record ten days later illustrating her toughness.
WHAT A WIN!
Anna Morris surprises the favourite Chloe Dygert to become world champion in the individual pursuit! ️ pic.twitter.com/fgHQ1uRWE3
— Eurosport (@eurosport) October 19, 2024
