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Women’s Empowerment: A stage race recap of the Colorado Classic
Chloé Dygert-Owen (Sho-Air Twenty20) proved that taking chances is worth it.
I’ve typed this woman’s name so often the past five days, it’s ingrained in my memory. This post isn’t just about this amazing 7x World Champion, World Record Holder 3K Individual Pursuit, and Olympic Silver medalist 22-year-old who swept the Colorado Classic stages as part of her training for Worlds at the end of September. Yeah, this was a training race for her but also a way to prove to USA Cycling she deserves a spot on the US National Team for UCI Worlds Championship.
As far as I can tell, this wasn’t a target race for her, which makes it that more astonishing that she went ahead and won, not just all four stages of the Colorado Classic, but swept the Best Young Rider, Sprinter, and Queen of the Mountain Jerseys. Usually, there’s a different winner for each Jersey each day.
I’ll be damned if she doesn’t make the USA Team for Worlds.
But this is more than Dygert’s sweep.
I remember seeing comments mocking a women’s-only race, that “when women are as fast as men then they can have their own race.” Usually, from internet trolls with nothing better to do as they sit at the computer and lurk on the internet.
