World Champion Dygert heads back to the road for another shot at the rainbow stripes  Â
Chloe Dygert-Owen of Sho-Air TWENTY20 Cycling takes track speed and power to the Pan American Continental Championships May 4th- 7th in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for the 32nd addition of this continental championships.
Dygert, who earned two world titles last month in Hong Kong at the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, is set and ready to transition her experience and form to the road.
“I feel prepared and ready for the time trial. Thanks to my coach Kristin and my Sho-Air TWENTY20 support team, my transition back to road from the track has been seamless. It’s always an honor to get the chance to represent your country so I’m really looking forward to Pan Ams. I am looking forward to the TT and to hopefully secure a spot for the world championships with a win.  I have definitely learned how to manage my nerves so heading into a big event of this level, I feel controlled yet still excited.  When I think of Pan Am’, I think of automatic qualification for worlds and that is the goal.”
Dygert-Owen took the Women’s Individual Pursuit after anchoring the U.S. team in their Team Pursuit victory at last month’s world championships, showing her dynamic power and ability to manage world caliber racing. Dygert spent the past week in Boise, Idaho at a high performance camp. The camp’s focus was on time trial specific training with her coach Kristin Armstrong and technical support with Joe Savola, in preparation for the 20 km time trial.
“Chloe’s number one goal on the road in 2017 is to compete in the individual Time Trial at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway in September. Â In order for her to compete in Norway she must first earn a spot on the team. Â The first opportunity for Chloe to do so is this week at the Pan American Championships. If Chloe wins on Friday she will earn an additional spot for Team USA which will also go to her,” said Armstrong. “Chloe is riding strong and is ready for Friday. We focused the last weeks on prepping her equipment as well as specific top end training.”
The 90 km road race event takes place May 6th. Sofia Arreola (MEX) of trade team Sho-Air TWENTY20 joins Dygert for the challenging course.
“It’s an honor to once again represent my country. Pan-Ams are very important to myself and to my country as it is the Continental Championships and a step closer to the Worlds Team. The Pan Ams course is very flat so it will be a “long track race” so having raced Track worlds last month was very good prep for it and has given me the confidence and knowledge of what it takes to race at the highest level,” said Arreola.
Following the Pan American Continental Championships both athletes head to the UCI Women’s World Tour Amgen Tour of California as an integral part of the team’s dynamic roster.
Leah Thomas (USA) earned a spot on the US road team but declined in favor of Redlands Bicycle Classic where she took a strong second in the time trial against the current UCI World TT Champion Amber Neben. Jasmin Duehring (CAN) also declined her nomination for the Pan American event to compete in Redlands Bicycle Classic.
