Road race good mental prep for Kristen Faulkner with Team Pursuit ‘always my number one priority’

Kristen Faulkner begins her double-discipline duty for Team USA at the Paris Olympic Games on August 4 in the women’s road race, followed by Team Pursuit rounds on the track on August 6 and 7. While she was a world-class rower and moved to pro road cycling in the last five years, track cycling proved to be the magnet for a first-time appearance at the Olympic Games and satisfy the desire for “exhilaration” and competition in a true team environment. 

While Faulkner won her first US Pro road race national championship this year, it did not provide automatic qualification to the Olympics like the time trial. She went into the ITT as the reigning Pan-American Champion, but finished second to Taylor Knibb at the Nationals. So the day after winning the road race, she flew to Belgium to take part in a final selection camp for the US track team in Zolder, where a last piece of the Paris puzzle fell in place.