Had to watch it late but I kept away from spoilers an wow, what a race!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".
I hear what you're saying, but I disagree. Lets' say Faulkner doesn't do the lion's share on the climbs and they don't catch the front 2. She almost certainly loses the 2-up sprint to Kopecky and is out of the medals. She rightly figured her best chance to win (or to medal at all) was to make it a group of 4 where anything can happen. She also said that she was having to persuade Lotte to work and her plan was to attack right after they caught them because she wanted to do it when everyone was exhausted. She knew she'd be the only one of the 3 not playing for the sprint and she may have also figured that might make them look at each other to cover her move. All in all, I think her tactics were spot on but it helped that she was also the strongest of the 4 on the day. As you mentioned, Blanka tried to follow and I think the other 2 were just as spent.
All that said, I was torn watching it because from the 4, I preferred a Vas or Faulkner win, and the only thing I didn't want was a Kopecky win.