USA National Road Championships: Taylor Knibb stuns field for Olympic golden ticket with women's time trial victory

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Taylor Knibb (Trek Factory Racing) stunned the field on Wednesday and won her first elite women’s time trial national title at the USA Cycling Pro Road Championships. Along with the stars-and-stripes jersey, the US Olympian in triathlon also secured a spot with USA Cycling for the Paris Olympic Games.

Kristen Faulkner was the closest among the favourites to finish in the wake of Knibb’s best time of 41:54, the EF Education-Cannondale rider stopping the clock 11 seconds behind Knibb and securing the silver medal. 

In third place was Amber Neben, 49 seconds off the best time. Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) finished fourth, 53 seconds back, and Lauren Stephens (Cynisca Cycling) completed her ride 1:41 down for fifth.

It was not a complete surprise to see Knibb blast across the flat course along the banks of the Kanawha River in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, as she was fourth in the event last year on a hillier route in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

“I’m in shock. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m just in shock. Last year was hard for the TT [National Championship]. And there are so many incredible riders out here, it was such an incredible day riding with them," Knibb said after her ride.

The elite women covered two laps of the downtown out-and-back course for a total distance of 20.9 miles (33.7km).

Faulkner matched Knibb's scorching time of 20:59 at the half-way point of the race and they were the only two riders to cover the opening lap in under 21 minutes. From there, Knibb never let go of the accelerator and secured the victory.

“There were four turns and that's it. Last year, there were so many turns and my coach said, ‘You're really good at holding race pace. Your weakness is getting to race pace.’ So, there were only four times that I had to get to race pace, and that was a relief for me. If it was a little bit more surgy, it would have probably favored some other women a lot better,” said Knibb.

This will be Knibb’s second appearance at an Olympic Games, as she finished 16th for Team USA in women’s triathlon in Tokyo, and also won a silver medal in the mixed relay. Last year she qualified for the US Triathlon team, so now can participate in two disciplines in Paris. She is a two-time world champion in the women’s Ironman 70.3, winning back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.

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