Kristen Faulkner stole the show in Sunday’s road race at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, bridging over to a leading duo with world champion Lotte Kopecky late in the race and then immediately attacking while the others dithered. Hers is the first American gold in the women’s road race since Connie Carpenter in Los Angeles 1984. Alison Jackson was the top Canadian at 19th.
The Course
Like the men’s race on Saturday, the women’s race ended on the Pont d’Iéna after finishing circuits, three 18.4-km loops that included the cobbled Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1 km, 6.5 percent). This contest was 158 kilometres long with 1700 metres of climbing and nine named ascents.
The Favourites
Lotte Kopecky led the Women’s WorldTour and was hoping to leave Paris with gold. Dutch duo Marianne Vos and Lorena Wiebes planned to thwart her. Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini had bronze from Tokyo and Rio but was looking for more. Could Aussie Grace Brown sweep the Paris 2024 road titles? Surprise victor in Tokyo, Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer wasn’t likely to solo away again.
The Canadian contingent was Olivia Baril and Alison Jackson, two of 93 competitors.
Burkina Faso’s Awa Bamogo was the first to break away, but she was reunited with the peloton by the first climb. The next solo fugitive was Slovakian Nora Jenčušová, who elicited chasers from Afghanistan (sisters) and riders from Vietnam and Israel. Eventually there were six fugitive 6:00 clear with 93 km to go. The Netherlands pulled in the peloton, and when the fugitives were within 2:00, surges further animated the field.
Lap 1: With the remnants of the breakaway within hailing distance, the attacks increased, Jackson part in the action. Before the Côte de la Butte Montmartre, there was a crash that delayed the majority of the peloton, Jackson and Baril included. Only nine riders were left out front, and Kopecky had to mount a desperate chase to get on even terms.
Jackson was part of a large chase.
Lap 2: The Vos-Kopecky group, heavy with Brits, headed into the second lap 38 seconds ahead of the larger Jackson chase. Spaniard Mavi Garcia was very aggressive on Sunday, and her surge on Côte de la Butte Montmartre unhitched two of the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…