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Kristen Faulkner rode solo to the road in entrance of the Eiffel Tower to deliver Crew USA a shocking highway race gold Sunday within the Paris Olympic Video games.
The Alaskan attacked away from a hitter group simply 3km from the road of a wildly explosive highway race in downtown Paris to grow to be the primary U.S feminine since Connie Carpenter in 1984 to win highway race gold on the Video games.
Former Olympic champion Marianne Vos (Netherlands) and reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) completed 2-3 behind Faulkner after they have been shocked by the 31-year-old winner’s audacious late assault.
Blanka Vas (Hungary) completed final within the three-rider dash for the rostrum steps, leaving the 22-year-old in fourth.
“I really feel prefer it’s a dream come true,” Faulker mentioned on the line. “I took a extremely huge danger a number of years in the past to chase my dream and I’ve made it occur. It’s one of the best feeling on this planet, I don’t know how you can describe it.”
Kristen Faulkner
Ladies’s #CyclingRoad Olympic Champion
#Biking#OlympicCycling #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/i2B1de7laj
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) August 4, 2024
Faulkner, who claimed the U.S. nationwide title little greater than 10 weeks in the past, was lively all day in her relentless, resilient trip to gold.
The 31-year-old made the decisive cut up at 48km to go, dragged Kopecky along with her in a chase for a late escape by Vos and Vas, after which stunned all of them when she attacked instantly after the foursome got here collectively in spectacular central Paris.
“I’ve practiced my late assault a number of instances this 12 months so I felt snug how you can do it, I simply hoped it will work,” she revealed on the end.
It was some race from Faulkner, who was solely known as into Crew USA’s highway race staff as a late substitute for triathlete Taylor Knibb.
However the 31-year-old has had some journey into biking too.
Faulkner marked her athletic playing cards as a rower whereas finding out at Harvard earlier than she launched head-first right into a profession in enterprise capital.
It was solely in 2021 that she determined she wished a life on two wheels, and she or he promptly give up her job and went full-time with Linda Jackson’s TIBCO staff.
She now races professionally with U.S. Ladies’s WorldTour squad EF Schooling Cannondale and has a shiny little bit of gold for her trophy cupboard.
Kristen Faulkner gained America’s first highway racing gold medal in 40 years, and she or he wasn’t even speculated to race #Paris2024https://t.co/2rJguofEmO
— Velo (@velovelovelo__) August 4, 2024
Faulkner’s ambitions in Paris aren’t finished simply but – she returns to motion subsequent week with Crew USA alongside highway race teammate Chloé Dygert within the staff pursuit, who rallied from a crash Sunday to complete fifteenth.
“I had excessive hopes in the beginning,” Faulkner mentioned in her winner’s interview.
“I’m doing the pursuit in two days and I solely mentioned I’d do the highway race if I felt robust and I had an opportunity on the medal. That’s the one purpose I’m right here,” Faulkner mentioned. “I knew it was going to be robust, however I knew if I used to be racing, I’m racing for the win, and I needed to are available with that ambition.
“If I wasn’t attempting to medal I wouldn’t race – that was a promise I made to my staff pursuit teammates,” she mentioned.
Dygert crash splits peloton as Faulkner will get away for USA
Faulkner was on the coronary heart of assaults that kick-started Sunday’s gruelling highway race, nevertheless it was a crash by her teammate Dygert at 48km to go that triggered the decisive cut up of the day.
Dygert crashed at 48km to go in a slim nook forward of the primary of three climbs of the cobbled Montmartre climb within the coronary heart of Paris.
Scores of riders have been held up on the slim Parisien streets, and a talent-packed mini-peloton obtained away.
Faulkner, Vos, Vas, Mavi García (Spain), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) and three Brits made the entrance group earlier than mega-favorite Kopecky dug deep to catch again on within the kilometers quickly after.
The crash and ensuing cut up divided a Dutch staff that had been anticipated to dominate the race.
2012 Olympic champion Vos gave the orange Armada a risk on the entrance, however Vollering and Wiebes have been left laboring in a chase group of shadow contenders like Grace Brown (Australia), Kasia Nieiwiadoma (Poland), and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark).
Vollering was left doing the pulling within the chase pack as few groups wished to danger dragging tremendous sprinter Wiebes to the road.
Vos and Vas vanish in two-up assault
Vos and Vas obtained their successful hole on the second of the race’s three circuits of central Paris.
The twosome and the remainder of the attackers – together with Faulkner – took a one minute hole into the second of three Montmartre ascents.
The Brit triple risk melted right down to solely Pfeiffer Georgi after Lizzie Deignan and Anna Henderson have been dropped on the merciless Montmartre ascent that topped every of the ultimate laps.
The 2 GB riders clawed again to the bunch, and sarcastically, it was a speculative assault from Deignan that set free Vos and Vas.
The veteran Brit attacked at 22km to go however quickly blew up underneath the load of her earlier effort, leaving counter-attackers Vos and Vas to romp clear and achieve greater than a one-minute benefit.
Faulkner rockets up Montmartre with ‘Queen Kopecky’ within the wheel
Kopecky, Faulkner, Georgi, Garcia, and Naomi Reugg (Switzerland) went onerous within the chase behind the 2 “V”s and put the race on a knife-edge into the ultimate Montmartre ascent and the ultimate 9km TT to the end line in entrance of the Eiffel Tower.
Faulkner piledrived up the cobbled climb and dropped everybody bar Kopecky, and the 2 drilled into the grap to Vos and Vas.
The ultimate 9km made for a two-team pursuit race.
Vos and Vas dangled only a handful of seconds in entrance of a sizzling pursuit by Faulkner and Kopecky.
The foursome solely got here collectively at 3km to go and Faulkner didn’t wish to await a dash. The Alaskan accelerated away and hunched into an aero tuck whereas her three rivals hesitated for only a cut up second.
A cut up second was all Faukner wanted.
She blazed by means of the ultimate kilometers with a pursuit efficiency that will do her monitor coach proud, and got here to the road with a one-minute gold medal hole.
Full Outcomes: