“Chloe, do you want us to ride hard or just to attack?” Tiffany Cromwell was saying to her team leader in the final ten kilometres of stage three of the Tour Down Under. The front of the women’s WorldTour peloton was smattered with the pink jerseys of Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto riders. The call from Dygert came back: they should attack. One by one they went, relentlessly. First Cromwell, then Maike van der Duin, all sacrificing their chances for the American woman, who believed she could win a reduced bunch sprint from the riders behind.
This is Canyon//SRAM. They have one aim; one clear, unequivocable ambition: for a member of their team to win. Each of them will do whatever it takes to make that happen, whether that’s launching moves off the front of the bunch, drilling the pace in formation or executing lead out trains in sprint finales. It’s something they have proven time and time again in recent seasons – a slow but sure transformation has been evident over the past two years. The German squad is a perfect example of how success breeds success: once they started winning, they couldn’t stop.
Kasia Niewiadoma’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift victory last season is the most high profile of those victories, and the confidence that yellow jersey has instilled in the team has already been prevalent in their first race of the season. Dygert’s eventual win on the final stage of the Tour Down Under was a textbook showing of perfect teamwork: clear leadership, unity and the self-belief to take on the race when it mattered.
Image: Cyclingimages/Tour Down Under
“Year by year, we're just getting stronger as a team. We have good leadership, we know what our roles are, and we back each other. That's how we want to race. We want to race for wins. We want to race aggressively. We don't just want to be followers,” Cromwell stated a few moments after Dygert won the sprint in stage three.
“Chloe is great to work with, because she tells you what she wants. She doesn’t second guess herself. She's a very confident rider, and she rarely turns up to a race if she doesn't have the form. When you have a leader like that you can give everything. You know they're not going to back down. That’s what you want.”
One individual who has been a driving force behind Canyon//SRAM’s impressive last couple of years is the team’s co-founder and current sports director, Beth Duryea. She was in the convoy Down Under as her team executed a tactical masterclass at the front of the race, and she’s been an important part of shaping the squad’s vision since its inception.
“Winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with Kasia, that already catapulted the wave that they were riding. It had been building already for a little while but to get a win in spring Classic and then to win the most iconic jersey last season, that just gives everyone a bit more of a push,” Duryea explained. “It's nice to then come into the winter knowing what you've already achieved last season. I think it also makes riders think: If we achieved that, what else can we achieve? It opens their eyes to the possibilities.”
Dureya and her colleagues have built a varied and multi-talented line-up for 2025, both retaining talent and signing new athletes who have serious promise. They have also increased the number of riders on the team’s roster, which will mean more resources to manage the ever-growing Women’s WorldTour calendar.
“We have an incredibly strong team this year. We have more riders than last year, we had a lot of injuries and illnesses in 2024 so we were down on riders. This year we have 18 riders, some younger, fresh ones and some very experienced and top riders. I think it's going to be a great year,” Cromwell stated.
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Stage winner Dygert certainly falls into the category of “top” and “experienced” – she is a two-time world champion in the individual time trial and finished second in the Worlds road race last season. Her personal, intrinsic drive to be the best is something that inspires those around her.
“I'm never satisfied, even when I win, I figure out how I can be better. I think the best example I can give you is in the Yorkshire World Championships, when I won the time trial by a minute and a half,” Dygert told the media a few moments after her stage win. “There are still three times in that race that I messed something up. I play it back in my head. I still remember that course like it's on the back of my hand. I'm always striving to be better, the best.”
Dureya recognises this quality in her athlete too: “For Chloe, the motivation to win outweighs anything else, whether that is with her or the team. If you look at her results, there’s a lot of riders in the peloton who would be happy with just one of them, but she sets herself such a high standard. You see that with a lot of top riders, they have incredible palmares but continue to fight and be motivated to win. Chloe knows she has achieved a lot but she’s done it alongside setbacks and injuries, so she’s also thinking what more could I do if I was healthy and injury free? That’s a driving factor.”
The American rider is one of Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto’s many assets, alongside Tour winner Niewiadoma. With the current line-up that the team has, alongside the confidence and determined mindsets of the riders, there’s every chance that they will continue to assert themselves as one of the key squads to beat in the women’s WorldTour peloton this season. It’s been an impressive period of transformation for the team, and Dygert’s win Down Under will only help continue to drive forward the momentum.
“It gives confidence to the team. We have half the team on training camp in Spain, and they're watching, following what we're doing, so they're going to be motivated – they have some races at the end of January in Europe as well,” Cromwell smiled. “I think when the team is successful, everyone gets excited, and we're all trying to give one hundred percent to the races we’re put into. We’re all very excited for the year.”
