The Red Bulletin August 2020 (US)

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WHENEVER THE TOKYO GAMES TAKE PLACE, BOTH COURTNEY AND DYGERT ARE AIMING FOR GOLD. . Back at the Camp of Champs, it’s a cool morning in Marin, and Courtney and Dygert are kitting up for another round of photos. This time, they’re wearing matching U.S. national team jerseys and they’re sharing the lens with a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge. It’s a formidable symbol of American muscle that Courtney envisioned for the shoot. Are they badasses, or badass princesses? The truth is, they’re each a bit of both. Dygert has been under the weather but is tolerating an operation involving photographers, videographers, a lead car, a follow car, an entourage. Courtney is posing for Copeland, who films a video of her braiding her hair. Once things get moving, the riders get positioned behind the GTO for some casual motor pacing. Though she’s not feeling well, Dygert slips into warrior mode, sitting inches off the car’s bumper; Courtney is at least a bike wheel’s length back—not surprising since mountain bikers have less practice drafting at close range. It’s yet another example of how these unlikely training partners are drawn together less by discipline or personality than by shared sponsors and nationality, age, talent and potential. “It’s unique to be strong American women competing in different disciplines, so it isn’t a head-to-head competition,” Courtney says. “I think that’s a positive thing when it comes to training days, where we can push each other and be comfortable being a bit more vulnerable. It’s not a race. It’s an opportunity to push beyond our own limits and then go back to our disciplines to perform at the top of our capabilities. There’s definitely lots of mutual respect.” Dygert agrees, adding that what they extract from each other is directly related to how dissimilar they are. “I think every top athlete needs to win all the time, but our mentality is so different,” she says. “Kate will go out and train 30 hours a week; I’m not sure I’ve ever gone over 20 hours in my life. She is very detail oriented. Kate has a lot of support and a great team behind her, while I have just a few people. We are so very different in how we prepare, how we look at things, how she feels before a race, how she feels about the Games. Everyone at the elite level has their own way of coping. We’re very different, but we’re both able to perform at the top of our discipline.” In February in Berlin, Dygert broke her own world record en route to a world championship in the IP. A few days earlier she’d led the team-pursuit squad to victory; she and her teammates dedicated the victory to the late Kelly Catlin. The IP is not an Olympic event, meaning her hopes for gold rest on the team pursuit and individual time trial; she’ll be starting the road race as well, though her role there is not certain. “Obviously, I want to win all three events,” she says. “The time trial is going to be the main focus, and then my fitness from that will obviously correlate with the team pursuit. And then, with the road race, it’s a bonus, you know?” Courtney is diplomatic when asked to define Olympic success. She won’t have three tries like Dygert; it all comes down to one race. “Arriving to the start line 100 percent prepared to give my best performance ever would be a success,” she says. “Whatever happens after that is in some ways out of my control. Of course I hope to win a medal.” In March, the IOC announced that the Games would be held in 2021. With that recalibration in mind, Courtney and Dygert shared some additional thoughts. “The coronavirus pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and mandated unprecedented decisions to protect our global community,” Courtney wrote in an email. “As someone who studied global health in college and reads the news, I recognize that the impact of this crisis is life-threatening for many and poses challenges far more critical than canceled sporting events. But as a competitor who has been working toward this season for years, it is also very challenging to have the events of an Olympic year be uncertain. That said, I am fully committed to my training toward Tokyo and am approaching this time at home as an unprecedented opportunity to focus and train with one key goal in mind.” She was more succinct on Instagram, writing, “Our time will come. These dreams are not canceled, they are just on hold for a moment. Hope and heartbreak can live side by side.” Dygert’s response was quintessential Chloé—blunt and to the point. “I feel like a broken record saying this, as it’s what everybody says, but you have to control your controllables. For me this has no change on my life except that I can’t race. Which to me, is fine. I’m not stressed, because I know I don’t need to race to be fit. I train alone most of the time, I live alone, and I like to be alone, so this really hasn’t impacted my training or added any stress to my life. Obviously it’s a bummer that the Games have been postponed, but I guess it means I have another year to get even fitter.” After Tokyo, Dygert will probably turn to hallowed European one-day classics such as Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders. It’s only a matter of time until she takes on the UCI Hour Record, which she will likely decimate. At some point she’d also like to try to win the women’s Giro d’Italia, though she’s hardly a climber for the high mountains. (Why, then? The leader’s jersey is pink. Duh.) Courtney has said that following the Olympics she might make a bid for the 2022 Cyclocross World Championship, held in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “I have no aspirations of being the greatest cyclocross racer,” Courtney says. “But I think there’s a lot of skills that could help me, and long-term it’s something I’m interested in trying now that I don’t have school during the fall.” But now, it’s January at the Camp of Champs. A simpler time, with a clearer focus. The muscle-car shoot is over, and Chloé and Kate (with Tim, Colin and Coach Kristin) pedal into the distance. In the coming months, the certainty of the Olympics will prove malleable. Adjustments will be made and remade. Whenever the Games wind up being held, both women will represent the U.S. and aim for gold. Because regardless of the path each took to get there, winning bike races is what they do. 34 THE RED BULLETIN
Musing about Olympic uncertainty, Courtney wrote, “Our time will come. Hope and heartbreak can live side by side.”
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The Red Bulletin August 2020 (US)

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