CANYON/SRAM Racing riders took three of six medals on offer in today’s UCI World Championship Road Race in Zurich, Switzerland. Chloé Dygert (USA) took home a silver medal in the Elite road race, adding to the bronze medal in the Individual Time Trial (ITT) earlier in the week. In the U23 road race, Neve Bradbury (AUS) won a silver medal and Antonia Niedermaier (GER) took bronze. For Niedermaier, it was her third medal from the championships after winning gold in the U23 ITT and silver in the Mixed Relay for Germany.

The combined Elite and U23 race was held in testing conditions of heavy rain and cold temperatures. An early breakaway swelled in numbers before the peloton swung into action in the second half of the 154km race. Chloé showed her resilience and strength to bridge across to the leaders, something she needed to do more than once during the course of the race. Chloé along with Ruby Rosemary-Gannon (AUS) joined the four leaders with less than 800m remaining. Chloé launched an impressive sprint after such an energy-sapping race, and was the only rider close to the winning sprint from Lotte Kopecky (BEL). Elisa Longo Borghini took third place for Italy.

Chloé said, “This week has been one of the biggest mental battles of my life. I’ve had a lot of challenges all year, and I’m just so blessed and grateful to have such positive people around me to help me, including this week. I’m still struggling with my confidence on the descent after several crashes where I’ve slipped out on descents. I had to go my pace in these conditions, and when I lost the front group on the last descent, I thought it was over. I did all I could to fight until the end. I expected they leaders would start looking at each other, and that would allow me to get back to the leaders, which is what happened. I’m happy to come away with silver after such a hard day. It’s God’s plan.”

Neve and Antonia were in a group of ten riders, including Kasia Niewiadoma, sprinting for tenth place in the Elite race and the coveted World Championship medals in the U23 race. Puck Pieterse (NED) won the U23 rainbow jersey ahead of Neve and Antonia in second and third.

Neve said, “It was a relentless day out and was a hard race from start to finish. I wanted to give it my all, and I attacked on the second last lap, but it didn’t work out. I then suffered from my efforts on the last lap and found myself in the third group on the road. Once I realised on the last lap that the Elite race was out of reach, I started to consider the U23 race. Our group had two Dutch riders closing every attack down for Pieterse, so I decided my best chance was to sprint. I’m happy with my second place. It’s something I can be proud of. My first world championships, and in weather that is usually not the best for me. I gave it my all, and I have no regrets.”

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