A CLASSIC BEGINNING
Charlotte Culver, back right, adjusts her helmet before lining up with other cyclists on the starting line before the first stage of the Colorado Classic on Thursday in Steamboat Springs. Stage 2 is in Avon, Stage 3 is in Golden, and the final stage will be Sunday afternoon around Coors Field in Denver.
Rising American cyclist Chloe DygertOwen broke away from a lead group of about 15 riders on the second major climb of the day 10 miles from the finish to claim Stage 1 of the Colorado Classic on Thursday in Steamboat Springs.
Dygert, a 22-year-old from Indianapolis on the Sho-Air Twenty20 team who claimed a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in team pursuit, prevailed on the 53.3-mile stage with a time of two hours, 19 minutes, 9 seconds for a 44-second margin over 11 other riders.
“I knew it was going to be hard with the altitude,” Dygert told an interviewer at the finish on the race’s live-stream coverage. “It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought. I thought the climbs were going to split the group up more. We all came into that final as a pretty big group, but then I saw everybody starting to hurt and I knew that was my moment. We had talked about it before the ride, to maybe attack over the climb and see what we could do. That’s what I did and I was able to hold it.”
With bonus points added, she will have a 48-second lead in the general classification over Whitney Allison (Hagens-Berman/Supermint) and 50 seconds over Brodie Chapman (TIBCO-SVB) with nine other riders 54 seconds back when the tour moves to Avon on Friday for the queen stage, a 50.3-mile race with 3,428 feet of climbing. Weekend stages will follow Saturday in Golden and Sunday in Denver.