The Eiffel Tower within the again, the end line in entrance, Kristen Faulkner appeared unaware she was on her option to win the Olympic highway race.
The 31-year-old had shaken free from a gaggle of leaders with simply 3 kilometers to go on the 158-kilometer course, and went into tunnel imaginative and prescient mode shortly. She seemed again as soon as, noticed she had opened up a spot, and powered away towards the road.
When she crossed it, there was no celebration. So, did she even knew she had gained? Sure, however the emotional impression of the second was just too overwhelming.
“I used to be fairly certain I gained. However to be sincere, I used to be like, ‘What on the earth simply occurred?’ I couldn’t course of it,” Faulkner instructed Eurosport after her victory. “It was too large to essentially understand it occurred, so it took me a couple of minutes and I needed to double-check, triple-check. ‘Did I simply win gold? Did I simply win gold?’ I knew it, however I didn’t comprehend it.”
The US’ first Olympic highway race champion in 40 years — when Connie Carpenter took to the highest spot on the rostrum within the self-discipline’s debut — Faulkner didn’t begin the day as one of many clear pre-race favorites. Regardless of some strong outcomes this season, she was merely a dark-horse to win the medal.
Faulkner, nonetheless, entered the race with a distinct mindset. It was both go large, or not go in any respect.
“I knew it was going to be a extremely robust race. However I knew that if I used to be racing, I used to be racing to win,” she mentioned. “I wasn’t racing to take part. So, I actually needed to are available with that ambition and if I wasn’t making an attempt the medal then I wasn’t going to race.”
Additionally set to take part within the workforce pursuit on the observe, Faulkner initially was not on the beginning record for the Olympic highway race. Nationwide time trial champion Taylor Knibb was picked to fill considered one of solely two accessible slots; Chloe Dygert, who had gained bronze within the Olympic time trial, was the opposite starter. Knibb determined to drop out, nonetheless, opening the door for the champion-to-be.
Dygert, in the meantime, performed a job in setting Faulkner up for victory: she was concerned in a crash with below 50 kilometers to go that tore the peloton aside and created chaos that reverberated by means of the race. Faulkner got here away unscathed from her teammate’s fall, and ultimately discovered herself in a potent group behind race leaders Marianne Vos (NED) and Blanka Vas (HUN).
With 10 kilometers to go, Faulkner and reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky initiated a transfer up the Montmartre hill to attempt to bridge a 30-second hole to Vos and Vas. It took them 7 kilometers to get there, however they did.
The quartet up entrance didn’t trip collectively lengthy, although. Faulkner threw down a haymaker virtually instantly after the 2 teams related, forcing Vas to chase her down. When the Hungarian pulled off in an try and get the extra skilled Vos and Kopecky to contribute, the race was successfully over: the three began neutralizing each other, whereas Faulkner rode off into the sundown.
“If we caught them, I needed to assault as a result of I couldn’t beat any of them on the road,” Faulkner later mentioned in regards to the race-winning transfer. “I knew that the most effective place to assault can be proper after we caught them and when everybody was a bit drained. That was my probability. I practiced my late assault a number of instances this yr, so I felt fairly comfy in the way to do it. I practiced it lots. I simply hoped it might work.”
Work, it did. And judging by her response afterwards, she didn’t simply stun her competitors with the blistering assault — she additionally surprised herself.
