How Cyclist Chloé Dygert Stays Motivated
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The coronavirus pandemic has caused major disruptions across all walks of life, including the sports world. But a tried and true athlete overcomes any obstacle and maintains focus despite distractions. True Athlete® sports nutrition from The Vitamin Shoppe® is designed to boost workouts and performance the trusted, safe way: All supplements are designated NSF Certified for Sport® and are rigorously tested to help ensure that they contain no banned substances, unlisted ingredients, or harmful impurities.
The Vitamin Shoppe® and Sports Illustrated spotlight elite athletes who may not be competing for their country this summer but are still getting stronger and better every day.
At age 23, most people are just learning how to make a five-year plan for their life. Chloé Dygert is not most people.
One of the best young cyclists in the country, Dygert has amassed an outstanding record on her bike, especially for someone who isn’t even old enough to rent a car. Cycling fans and even executives love to remind Dygert that her coach, a former gold medalist cyclist herself, rode for the US team for twenty years. So Dygert decided to listen to them and adjust her plans: Tokyo would be one of seven times she would compete—and win—for America.
“So that’s what I’m doing,” she says, completely nonchalant. “I have to do it.”
Bursting with talent and confidence, Dygert already has a silver medal to her name and was laser-focused on collecting gold this summer across every cycling discipline there is at the international level. Road or track, time trials or team pursuit—no matter the course, Dygert shows up ready to dominate.
“I’m here to race my bike. I'm here to win medals. I'm here to compete against the best and be the absolute best,” she says. “Any and every race, I have the opportunity to win.”
Dygert may be confident, but she is also ferocious in training and refuses to back down from any challenge. However, when the pandemic struck, Dygert’s training went on hold and her twenty-year plan got pushed back. Being homebound in her apartment in Boise, ID, would seem like a nightmare for such a competitive athlete. But in her determination to excel in everything, Dygert is also just about the best homebody imaginable.
“Oh, I can turn it off,” she says with zero hesitation. “People ask my coach: Oh, do your riders have a really hard time taking time off? And she’ll say: ‘Yeah, my riders. But with Chloe, you tell her not to do anything and she'll lay in bed all day.”
To balance out all the competitive fire and determination that makes her an elite cyclist, Dygert is also a world-class couch potato. So when quarantine began and her coach told her to stay off the bike, Dygert had no problem shutting it down.
“I like to watch my movies or watch my TV shows or, you know, order food and be lazy.”
It helps that Dygert is taking time off without rehabbing her body. She has fought through serious injuries multiple times over her career and has always come back stronger and better. And while the most frustrating part of an injury layoff is missing races, with no races on the schedule, Dygert took a more zen approach.
“I calmed down,” she says. “To me, it was just a setback. Everybody's in the same boat this time, at least.”
Dygert says she leaned heavily on her faith to stay motivated and positive, and looked at the situation as a way to let her body recharge and recover after years of constant competition. She parked her stationary bike on her porch, which overlooks the breathtaking Idaho wilderness, and did plenty of at-home workouts to keep fit. However, that was just a small part of each day. At mealtime, Dygert is all about “high-end junk food” as she calls it, barely able to contain her laughter.
“I don't know how to explain it! But if I make cookies or something, I can’t use regular peanut butter. I have to use the high-end peanut butter. So I'm a healthy, bad eater.”
For the first time in a while, her daily routine of streaming movies and eating her favorite foods seemed much more like that of a typical 23-year-old, or at least as typical as an elite cyclist can be. Dygert has undergone lab testing to determine the best way to fuel herself on the bike and, believe it or not, actual experts tell her she needs higher than normal doses of simple carbohydrates to perform her best in races. It’s an issue unlikely to garner much sympathy.
“I need sugar!” she laughs. “I do it because I perform well on sugar—before Junior World championships in 2015, I ate like six cake pops before the race and I won. The day before a race, if I have, like, a ton of donuts? We’re good.”
Serious cyclists will back her up, as the worst thing you can do during a race is “bonk,” or run out of energy. Think of it like a flat tire for your body. And for many riders, the only protection is pure sugar.
Now that she has emerged from her cozy cave and is back on the bike, Dygert’s twenty-year plan is back on track too. With a rare blend of ability and tenacity, she is sure to be a fixture for the US at international competitions, starting next summer in Tokyo and continuing on indefinitely. No matter where she competes, Dygert will be hard to miss: She’ll be the one polishing off the box of donuts before the race, and hoisting the gold medal after.
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