After months of recovery from a major crash at the 2020 World Championships in Tuscany and a limited race program last summer, Chloe Dygert made her long-awaited Canyon-Slam road racing debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.

After competing in time trials at the U.S. National Championships last year, this opening weekend will be the first time she has raced with her teammates since joining the Women's World Tour at the start of the 2021 season, after focusing on both road racing and time trials at the Tokyo Olympics.

After the race, Dygert described her Spring Classic debut as a "wild card" race, a chance to determine what it would be like to race in the European peloton for the first time. His goal for the day was to work for his teammates, but it was the 25-year-old who finished first for his team in the chasing peloton, behind race winner Annemiek van Fruten of Movistar.

"Definitely, coming into this race, I didn't know what to expect," Dygert said. "I knew it was a wild-card race for me. I wanted to do what I could for the team and learn what it was like physically and mentally to be back in the peloton. It was also my first time in Europe and my first road race outside of the Olympics in over two years."

"So I wanted to get as much experience as possible in this race to prepare myself for the big World Tour races coming up and to stay with the team in everything I I was working on it."

Daigert, who finished seventh in the TT at the Tokyo Olympics in July, said he took some takeaways from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for the spring season.

"After this race, we know some things we need to work on for the upcoming races. 'And as a team, too. This is the first time I've run with these girls, Shari and Sarah. It's good for us to move forward, work together as a team, get into the flow, understand each other, and keep moving forward from there."

The 128-km race started in near-freezing temperatures in Ghent and continued in chilly conditions throughout the day, but Daigert ran into one problem related to a serious leg injury she sustained in Tuscany from contact with a guardrail.

She said that the weather and coasting in the peloton during the race caused her leg pain that continued after the finish and hampered her subsequent warm-down. She noted that the pain resulting from the career-altering crash could have lasted throughout her racing career.

"The pain in my legs is still bad some days, especially when it's cold outside. 'Today, when I was coasting, the weather took its toll on my legs. Towards the end of the race, especially after the last climb, I was coasting a lot more and my legs hurt.

"My legs got really cold and it was hard to pedal the bike after sitting down for a bit after the finish.

"It's definitely getting better day by day, but I'm still fighting the pain.