Like the men’s road race the day before, the women’s field set of at the 2024 Olympic road race on a 5-kilometer procession, passing iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Seine, Les Invalides, and the Latin Quarter, before the official race start on Rue Gay-Lussac in the 5th arrondissement. For the first time in Olympic history, there was also an equal number of male and female participants, with 90 men and 90 women.
An early break off the front was made by Nora Jencusova of Slovakia, putting in a two minute gap on the peloton with 120 kilometers remaining. is in the front with a 1m51s gap to the peloton. A few riders are trying to move and join her on the breakaway at the moment.
A chase group 50 seconds behind Jencusova formed with 117 kilometers left on the day, which included Hanna Tserakh (AIN), Thị Thật Nguyen (Vietnam) Rotem Gafinovitz (Israel), and two Kenyan riders, Fariba Hashimi and Yulduz Hashimi.
The gap to the front of the race had increased to as much as six minutes among the break with 90 kilometers to go to the finish, but they were reeled in with under 50 kilometers remaining, as the last two riders remaining from the breakaway were caught by the peloton with 47 kilometers left.
American rider Chloe Dygert, who was a gold medal favorite in the Olympic time trial this year, and captured bronze despite a crash, also had an unfortunate crash on the road race 46 kilometers from the finish.
42 kilometers to go Belgian rider Lotte Kopecky and nine additional riders were at the front, and with 30 kilometers remaining this group had grown to include twelve riders. With 21 kilometers to go, Dutch rider Marianne Vos and Hungarian rider Blanka Vas held a 10 second gap at the front.
15 kilometers from the line, Vos and Vas had increased their lead to 30 seconds.
With 8 kilometers to go, Kopecky and Kriten Faulkner of the United States of America formed a two-woman chase just 6 seconds behind Vos and Vas.
3.4 kilometers from the line, the chasing two riders connected with Vos and Vas at the front, with Falkner soon separating from the other three riders. Faulkner created a 10 second gap in the following kilometers and none of the other three riders put in a challenge.
Faulkner would continue to build her gap off the front, capturing gold for the United States on the day in an outstanding show of determination, endurance, and tactics.
On a three-woman battle for silver and bronze, Marianne Vos would take home silver for the Netherlands, while Lotte Kopecky would earn bronze for Belgium, giving the country another medal after Remco Evenopoel won gold on the same finish the day before.
Kristen Faulkner grew up in the fishing community of Homer, Alaska, where she was one of five siblings. She attended Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, excelling academically and athletically as a varsity runner, swimmer, and rower. She later graduated from Harvard University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, where she also competed in varsity rowing and set the record for the fastest 2-kilometer indoor rowing time for lightweight women.
Faulkner began her cycling career in 2016 while living in New York City. She quickly developed a passion for the sport and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2018. In 2020, she joined Team TIBCO–Silicon Valley Bank, transitioning to professional cycling while working full-time as an investment associate at Threshold Ventures, a venture capital firm. Her rise in competitive cycling has been notable.
In 2023, she won the Women's road time trial at the Pan American Games and secured multiple victories in the 2024 season, including the Omloop van het Hageland and Stage 4 of La Vuelta Feminina. Additionally, she won the Road Race and finished second in the Time Trial at the USA National Road Race Championships in May 2024.
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