U.S. cyclist Kristen Faulkner wins shocking gold medal in women’s road race

Again within the peloton, the primary group of riders, the robust Netherlands workforce of Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Ellen van Dijk and Vos led the group whereas biding their time. Kopecky, the present world champion, additionally remained within the group. Kopecky gained 11 races within the season main as much as the Olympics.

With 100km (62 miles) to go and headed into the second climb of the day, the lead group of Jencusova, Gafinovitz, and Yulduz, which at that time included sister Fariba, Vietnam’s Thi That Nguyen and Impartial athlete Hanna Tserakh with a 5:18 lead over the primary group — the most important lead of the day.

Midway by means of the race, the peloton quickened the tempo and began to chip away on the lead. Getting into the ultimate climb earlier than town circuit, the place the majority of the motion occurred within the males’s race, van Dijk closed the hole to three:36. By the point the race entered town once more, the lead was down to simply two minutes.

The peloton caught Fariba and Tserakh, who had separated, because the group started the climb on the Cote de la Butte Montmartre. Catastrophe struck for American Chloe Dygert on the primary flip of the climb when she crashed close to the entrance of the primary group. The crash, within the narrowest a part of the highway, prompted a cut up within the massive peloton group with many medal favorites caught within the carnage.

Dygert gained the bronze medal within the ladies’s time trials earlier within the Video games. She additionally suffered a nasty crash within the race and needed to be helped off her bike. Within the highway race, she ultimately hopped again on her bike, however at that time was nicely behind. 

Faulkner managed to remain forward of the crash. She executed an assault and took the lead within the race with Spain’s Mavi Garcia. Gold medal contenders Kopecky and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini additionally emerged forward of the crash. 

Getting into the ultimate climb of the Montmartre, Vos and Hungary’s Blanka Vas separated from the primary lead pack for a 30 second lead.

On the ultimate climb, Faulkner and Kopecky executed a formidable climb to shut the hole behind the lead pair to 5 seconds. Along with her dad and mom in attendance, Faulkner left her rivals speechless as she surged forward down the stretch, leaveing no room for pursuit, to safe the gold medal. She completed the feat on the fortieth anniversary of the final (and solely) American gold on this occasion, gained by Connie Carpenter-Phinney on the 1984 Video games.

Faulkner on her aggressive assault: “I knew I needed to assault them as quickly as we caught them. I knew they have been sprinters. However I knew they did not wish to work collectively – they have been three completely different nations. I knew if I bought a small hole they must race for second.”

After the transfer, she tried to maintain her focus, “I simply counted to 10 about 10 occasions till I hit the end line.”

Dygert had a formidable push to get again within the race, but it surely was too little too late as she ran out of time and in the end completed fifteenth.