Olympic Road Race (women’s) 2024 (August 4rd)

[Sciatic]

Faulkner solo incoming.

Good call!

 

[Sciatic]

Did Faulkner not realise she'd won or just too shellshocked to post up and get the big photo

On the replay you can see the smile and relief on her face, so I think she knew. Must be up there with most subdued gold-medal winning celebrations in Olympics history.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bigger upset. Faulkner for the gold or Kuss for the Vuelta?

What a ride!

Unless it's like, Oliver Zaugg at Lombardia, fluking a GT - races that are designed to eliminate fluke winners - will always be a bigger upset than a surprise winner of a one-day race. The surprise is not that Kristen Faulkner won, because that can happen, it's that Kristen Faulkner won by being the strongest rider on the day and winning by outmuscling the likes of Vos and Kopecky, not by outsmarting them. You can argue that the final 3k she won it in tactics, but she won the right to do that by being the strongest on the final lap and taking what looked like a suicidal risk that exposed her to the risk of giftwrapping the race to Kopecky and dooming herself to 4th - but crucially, gave herself the chance to win.

 

[awavey]

I often think that's the thing that holds some riders back in the WWT, Kasia I'm looking at you especially, they often aren't prepared to take that all in win or bust suicidal risk that's all about creating the chance to win and Faulkner for sure is going to win more riding like that than lose.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Language Demi!

Did she call Faulkner the B word again?

 

[MartinGT]

Vollering has won some top top races. But she's struggled this season. It will be interesting to see what she can do at FDJ without the support she has had at SDW

 

[Hugh Januss]

True, I give her that. But the other 2 - wtf...

They were all spent. Faulkner had the easiest ride to the bottom of the last hill, and so the most left although she was either all in when she crossed the line or couldn't believe she had actually done it (or both). At first I thought she was auditioning for a spot on SDWorks for next year. I didn't give her much of a chance in the sprint after doing most of the work coming across but apparently she had a plan, or got lucky. Sometimes you can tell when you are the strongest, sometimes you gamble and get 4th.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Did she call Faulkner the B word again?

It was ***

 

[awavey]

Vollering has won some top top races. But she's struggled this season. It will be interesting to see what she can do at FDJ without the support she has had at SDW

Would you bet against her at TdFF ? Some might argue support at SDW is lacking something this year compared to last. FDJ probably need a stronger set of core riders willing to ride for her and to make best use of her, but I'm sure they'll work it out

 

[Dk one]

She has been invincible in tours and grand tours, but her one day race stats are not as good as last year.

Vollering has won some top top races. But she's struggled this season. It will be interesting to see what she can do at FDJ without the support she has had at SDW

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Would be a shame if Faukner wore some kind of banned glucose measurement device and got stripped of the win. I'm sure nobody would ever make that mistake though

 

[MartinGT]

Would you bet against her at TdFF ? Some might argue support at SDW is lacking something this year compared to last. FDJ probably need a stronger set of core riders willing to ride for her and to make best use of her, but I'm sure they'll work it out

She has been invincible in tours and grand tours, but her one day race stats are not as good as last year.

That's it. You would be a fool to bet against her at the Tour. She's looked frustrated this year which is understandable.

 

[awavey]

Would be a shame if Faukner wore some kind of banned glucose measurement device and got stripped of the win. I'm sure nobody would ever make that mistake though

I was wondering what those rules were for the Olympics 🤔

But then yesterday I was thinking do they weigh Remcos bike post race and don't count the head unit in the static weight 🤣

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I often think that's the thing that holds some riders back in the WWT, Kasia I'm looking at you especially, they often aren't prepared to take that all in win or bust suicidal risk that's all about creating the chance to win and Faulkner for sure is going to win more riding like that than lose.

Please don't jeopardise the only tactical knowledge she has. She will read this and interpret it as "you need to commit to attacking more often" and she'll ride even more like a headless chicken than she already does!

 

[Escarabajo]

Eagerly looking forward to the couch potatoes on this board telling us what the correct tactics should have been and what every rider should have done to maximize their chances of winning.
That seems to be an inevitable post-race ritual here.

Brilliant race, made better by the lack of race radios.

LOL. Let me start by recommending riders to position in front to avoid crashes!

 

[RobertCrawley]

Light in August! Faulkner authors an epic win!

 

[jmdirt]

WHOOOOOOO!

GREAT race Kristen! Congrats!

Congrats Marriane and Lotte as well!

 

[jmdirt]

I understand why Vos decided not to take a pull even though she was strong today. She already have Oly gold, so why drag others to the line? You can be sure if she took away with Faulkner she'll take another gold. And enough time for a victory salute too.

But thumbs up for USA, they did those two decisive moves of the day.

you and I didn't watch the same race.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

What did Vollering say?

 

[tobydawq]

I hope she gets gold simply because if she didn't win gold she completely destroyed the race. She dared. It would have been super stupid racing if any other outcome arrived so she HAD to win to justify it.

Lol, talk about covering all bases. "What a moronic way to race!!! Sure, she won, but still, what an idiot..."

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lol, talk about covering all bases. "What a moronic way to race!!! Sure, she won, but still, what an idiot..."

It was an all or nothing move, giving up all potential shots at minor metal for what seemed like a fairly fanciful opportunity for gold as long as she was doing the majority of the work alongside Kopecky. In the vast majority of circumstances from that position, in the vast majority of races, ain't nobody backing Faulkner over Kopecky on that run-in, so it seemed like a very low percentage play at the time.

I was critical because it felt like she was doing way too much to give herself any chance in any group or two-up combination of the four athletes there coming to the line together, and I felt it played completely into Kopecky's hands. Hence why I thought she was doing the wrong thing but hoped that once they did make the junction (I hoped they didn't, I wanted Vas of the four) she was strong enough to pull it off and get away, because it would be the only thing that would justify the effort she had put into it. Don't tell me you were looking at the group 30" behind Vos and Vas going into the Butte de Montmartre and when the chasers started to splinter and Kopecky was on Faulkner's wheel, you thought "yea, Faulkner's going to win this solo".

 

[Tonton]

Did Faulkner not realise she'd won or just too shellshocked to post up and get the big photo

It may be a mental challenge to herself when she launched her attack or very soon afterwards, swearing not to look back, give it all until she's past the line. The promise you make to yourself, and she stuck to it. Bravo!

Sorry Lotte, but you lost me today.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Just watched the final 60K via my Max Sport account.
Very good racing today. Yet again. And what a relief of an upsetting result.
And the crowds and the scenes.

I really have to credit the organizers for having the courage to pause central Paris.

I don't understand the extreme sport here of looking for holes in the soup.
Yesterday the men's typical long run-up to the final (as it usually is in the big championships, nothing new) - today classic misdispositions and misfortunes.
To me it's all just stories, written with an eager pen on the asphalt and cobblestones.

Very worth watching. My stolen night hours were not wasted. On the contrary.

To me personally those were by far the best olympic road races I've witnessed since I cheered for Alexi Grewald.

When I watch Kristin in the last round, I think it's disparaging to say that she only won by chance.
There is only so much tactics involved in the G2 because they eventually run on flat batteries.
Simple race logic also dictates that the "fly paper" that Kristin had got on the back wheel over Montmartre and up to the other two top favorites was not just many kilometers of total rate without just a single lead. Read the race between the lines. Some favourites' batteries were low level at the dying stages.

To me, it was the perfect and worthy winner today.

 

[red_flanders]

Well that was an incredible ride.

Strongest won, both races. Love it.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Cyclingnews board poster, carefully critiquing the many "mistakes" professional riders make in the heat of the race.