August 4/24 15:13 pm - Faulkner Wins Wins Road Title, Jackson Top-20

Posted by Editoress on 08/4/24
 

Forty years after the inaugural women's Olympic road race title was awarded to American Connie Carpenter, on Sunday Kristen Faulkner became only the second U.S. rider to win the Olympic road title, with a bold attack in the final kilometres of the race. Canada's Alison Jackson finished 19th, with national road champion Olivia Baril 44th.

Baril and Jackson

The 158 kilometre race opened with the almost obligatory early attack, which gained a maximum of over six minutes in front of the peloton. However, as the race approached the final two circuits in Paris, including three ascents of the Montmarne climb, the stronger teams began to reel the leaders in, catching them the first time up the climb.

A crash at the narrow right hand turn into the climb by Chloe Dygert (USA) proved to be the critical turning point in the race - much of the bunch was held up, while ten riders managed to go clear and open a gap, from which the main bunch would never recover.

Among the riders that got clear were the USA's Faulkner, Marianne Vos (Netherlands), Blanka Vas (Hungary), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), British riders Elizabeth Deignan, Pfeiffer Georgi and Anna Henderson, Mavi Garcia (Spain), Noemi Ruegg (Switzerland) and Marta Lach (Poland). Missing the break were favourites Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), the Dutch duo Lorena Wiebes and Demi Vollering, and time trial gold medalist Grace Brown (Australia). Kopecky, after a hard solo chase, managed to get across.

The Brits, with three up front, were regularly launching attacks, but they were always brought back and, in the end, just exhausted them. It also had the effect of breaking up any rhythm for the group working together, and a chase trio of Wiebes, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland) and Caroline Andersson (Sweden) managed to pull to within 30 seconds of the leaders at one point.

At 22 kilometres to go, Deignan launched what would prove to be the winning move, taking Vos and Vas with her. However, the Brit then was unable to maintain the pace of the other two and dropped back. Vos and Vas worked very well together, steadily pulling away from the reduced chase group, opening a gap of 36 seconds with 15 kilometres to go. It looked like the race might come down to these two, but then Faulkner hammered up the final climb, taking only Kopecky with her. Despite Faulkner doing the majority of the work as the Belgian rider sat on, the pair quickly closed to within six seconds of the two leaders over the top of the climb, catching them with 3.3 kilometres to go, after the descent.

Kristen Faulkner (USA) climbs the Côte De La Butte Montmartre - SWPix

Faulkner attacked almost immediately as the others sat up, and quickly gained 16 seconds as her rivals dithered. Vos looked at Kopecky, who shook her head negatively, and that was it; the three were conceding the title to Faulkner and would ride for the two remaining medals. The American continued to pull away in the remaining three kilometres to win by almost a minute, still powering as she crossed the line, not even raising her arms in victory.

Faulkner finishing

The sprint for silver and bronze

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The three behind were in danger of being caught by chasers as they slow rode to the finishing straight. Kopecky opened the sprint from the front, with Vos coming up beside her to her right and Vas to the left. All three threw their bikes at the line, and were less than half a wheel apart, with Vos pipping Kopecky for silver and Vas taking fourth.

Both Canadians were caught by the action after the crash. Jackson stayed with the remnants of the peloton, finishing third in the sprint, while Baril was fifth in her group sprint.

"Everyone was here at the peak of their form for the Olympic Games," said Baril, "which made it really hard. Everyone was trying to get in on the action, which made it a fast, hard race. I was caught behind a few crashes at really, really important moments, but that was my fault; I should have been more at the front in the bunch. But I gave it everything; I could have had better legs, but it is what it is. It was really nice to have everybody out on course; there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people cheering for us. I saw a lot of Canadian flags, so I was happy about that."

"I'm really happy with how I raced today," said Jackson, who revealed, "I had a bit of illness a couple of days ago, but I wanted to race like a champion here. I had to try some things [attacks and following moves] if you are going to go for the gold, so I'm happy with how I raced. I made it through the crash at the Montmarne climb, I got to stay on my bike."

For Jackson it was her second Games, with the previous one the pandemic-era Tokyo Games, and she noted the differences: "this time we have so many fans that it makes it a different feeling when you are out on the course. It was a better result here for me [32nd in Tokyo]; this course suited me better. Plus all the action leading into the race, interacting with other athletes from other sports on Team Canada. There are so many inspiring stories, and it's just really exciting to be a part of it."

Results

Olympic Games: Evenepoel Takes Second Gold on the Road