Chloe Dygert Owen returned from a concussion suffered more than a year ago to dominate the elite women's time trial at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire on Tuesday.

The American was poised to win, but surprised even herself when she found herself more than a minute and a half ahead of Dutch winners Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten. [It's been two years since I've raced with these girls, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a really special moment." I didn't have my power meter with me today, which was the biggest advantage. I was on full throttle from the start. Maybe I got a little too hot, but I was able to keep it that way."

Dygert-Owen crashed heavily in the final kilometer of the first stage of the Tour of California last May. It took him nearly a year to recover from the concussion he suffered in this accident. In addition, he continues to have hip and knee pain. He also suffers from degenerative back pain, which he says feels like the vertebrae in his spine are grinding away.

"I have a lot of injuries right now, and it's definitely something I have to live with," said Dygert Owen.

However, some of Dygert-Owen's injuries have settled and she has been training and racing at almost full capacity since mid-summer. She won the time trial and team pursuit at the Pan American Games, and recently won all four stages and the overall at the Colorado Classic. At the time, she told Cycling News that her performance at the Pan American Games was her best since her crash more than a year ago.

"Last year I had a concussion and missed the World Championships and the entire track season. I spent the first half of the season really taking it easy and practicing especially for this race."

She entered the race as a dark horse competing for the rainbow jersey against two-time defending champion Van Breuten and four-time silver medalist Van der Breggen. The name of five-time world champion in individual and team Pursuit, Daigert Owen, is synonymous with track racing; he won the double world title in the junior time trial and road race in Richmond in 2015, but on the road scene, European She is still somewhat of an unknown quantity on the road scene in the eyes of her European rivals.

She has been out for an extended period of time due to injury and has not competed in any European road races. Nevertheless, she was on Van der Breggen's radar for Yorkshire.

"Yes, she was on [our] radar," Van der Breggen said. 'Anne-Mike does track racing and we follow that discipline. I knew Chloe was good at track racing, and I knew she was good at time trials. So she was my favorite athlete."

Dygert-Owen said the rainy conditions and the delayed start of the elite women's time trial did not affect her performance. She said she often trains in the rain because she lives in Washington State and is used to the delays that are common in track races.

The women's 30km time trial started in Ripon and finished in Harrogate. The first 14 km were relatively flat, with a climb beginning after the mid-race checkpoint, followed by a technical section on the run-in to the finish line.

"I rode it twice and a couple of times," said Dygert-Owen. "I watched the video. This morning I watched the Boys (under 23 boys) race. They were very well prepared. When we got to the uphill ...... It was very tough."

Dygert Owen had a fast start. She caught up to and passed seven racers who had started eight minutes ahead of her. By the time Van Vleuten passed the mid-race checkpoint, Dygert-Owen was more than a minute faster. She finished the race at an average speed of 43 km/h, 1:32 ahead of silver medalist van der Breggen and 1:52 ahead of bronze medalist van Fluten.

Dygert-Owen attributes much of her success to time trial coach Kristin Armstrong, a two-time world champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist. Asked if Armstrong had imparted any wisdom to her before the time trial, Dygert-Owen said that she had spoken to her coach by phone the night before the race and listened to her coach's advice.

"We were talking on the phone last night and she said, 'One of the things I think about during the race is whether I'm hurting as much as the other racers.' That really stuck with me today. Every time I went up a hill, I thought, 'Let's back up a little bit,' and when I did, I knew I wasn't trying hard enough. I need to run harder. That really stayed with me."

Dygert-Owen hopes to compete in the Team Pursuit along with the time trial and road race at the Tokyo Olympics next August. Until then, he has no plans to compete on the road in Europe or with a European trade team. Rather, she said she would like to continue training specifically for the time trial and Pursuit.

"I definitely want to follow in Christine's footsteps," she said of her coach, who spent most of her career focused solely on time trials. I would love to race in Europe, but my goal is time trials and track events. I'll think about it after Tokyo."

Asked at the post-race press conference what it meant to sit between two of the world's strongest riders, van der Breggen and van Grooten, she replied, "It's really special." [Two phenomenal riders, and definitely people I look up to."