USA Pro Road Championships: Kristen Faulkner outsprints Lauren Stephens to defend elite women's road race title

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) defended her title in the elite women's road race at the USA Pro Road Championships in Charleston on Monday. 

The double Olympic champion won a three-way sprint to the line, beating runner-up Lauren Stephens (Aegis Cycling Foundation) and third-placed Katherine Sarkisov (CCB p/b Levine Law Group) on the line.

"Going into the last two laps, I pushed the pace on the climbs and with one and half to go, we had to go, we had to play hardball. I knew we had to catch Emma [Langley]; she's a strong athlete, we have been teammates before, she was national champion before, so I knew we had to catch her," Faulkner said in a post-race interview on Flobikes.

Outlining the tactics between the three breakaway riders in the closing kilometres, she said "I was worried that when we caught her, there would be counterattacks and the pace would be high, so thankfully Lauren and Katherine worked with me; very strong ride by both of them.

"I knew going into the end, it would be hard to attack because Lauren was covering my attacks all day, so I've never won from a sprint before, and said, 'If there was ever a day to make it happen, we gotta make it happen today.' I've been working on my sprint all winter, and thankfully, it worked today."

Faulkner made a decisive move on the Bridge Road ascent with 19km remaining in the race, Stephens followed, and the pair were later joined by Sarkisov over the top and on the flatter sections.

They caught and passed solo breakaway rider and Stephens' Aegis Cycling Foundation teammate Emma Langley, who had been out front since attacking early in the race on the first of four large circuits, briefly joined by a bridger, Jamie Chapman (Speedblock p/b Terun). 

Only three riders entered the final together, and Stephens attacked on the last time up the Wertz climb, with Faulkner closing the distance. That effort briefly dispatched Sarkisov off the back, but after a monstrous effort, she regained contact on the descent and flatter sections with 3.8km from the line.

Sarkisov then led the leaders into the final corners of the race, also starting her sprint first on the straightaway. But Stephens countered on the right side of the road with Faulkner pulling up alongside her and then sprinting to the line, ahead by a whisker to secure the stars-and-stripes for another year.

How it unfolded

The elite women first competed on two laps of the 14.4km junior circuit featuring the Wertz climb, with pitches as steep as 24%.  They then crossed to the opposite side of the river to tackle the punishing Bridge Road climb for four large laps of a 20.9km combined junior-elite circuit, making a total of 113.8km.

The peloton remained largely intact along the opening shorter circuits before crossing the Kanawaka River to start the longer circuits. Aegis Cycling Foundation's Langley was the first rider to launch a solo attack on the field on the first time around the large loop, opening a gap of 40 seconds.

Cynisca did the lion's share of the work to manage the time gap, holding the time at 1:10, as they raced over the Wertz climb and toward the second of four larger loops.

Although there were a couple of attacks out of the field, Langley's teammate Katherine Sheridan shut down many of the moves until former rower Jamie Chapman (Speedblock p/b Terun) broke the elastic band and went on a solo chase in pursuit of Langley.

Thanks to her powerful effort, Chapman made the connection to Langley with 35km (roughly two laps) remaining. Their gap, however, dropped to 35 seconds as the reduced field of 20 riders focused on the chase, led by Cynisca.

Faulkner sat patiently in fourth wheel, biding her time while rival teams closed the gap, and said that her plan was to try and whittle the group down further on the final two laps.

"They took out half of the first two laps, so the course was easier this year. I was expecting more attacks off the front from kilometre zero, but we didn't see that. I think some teams wanted to stay together and play their numbers in the end," Faulkner said.

"The group was pretty big compared to last year, going into the final laps. I thought, 'How do we shrink this?', and so there were attacks in the final few laps. But I knew that if I wanted to make the race hard and whittle it down, I would have to push myself."

Out front, Langley attacked again and distanced Chapman on the Wertz climb, once again going solo into the last lap. Once over the top, however, Chapman dragged herself back up to Langley, pushing the pair's gap out to 25 seconds on the flatter sections of the course.

Chapman struggled to hang on to Langley over the Bridge climb with the Aegis Cycling Foundation rider going solo, again, over the top.

As planned, Faulkner put pressure on the field over the Bridge climb, splitting the reduced peloton apart, and reeling in Chapman with 19km remaining. Stephens was the only rider who could follow Faukner's pace, but offered no help in the chase to reach her teammate Langley.

Faulkner and Stephens reached Langley with 18.2km to go, ending her solo breakaway, as the pair then launched themselves into the race for the stars-and-stripes jersey. In a surprising move, Sarkisov managed to make it across to the pair to form a late-race breakaway of three.

Chasing 30 seconds behind the trio were Langley, Natalie Quinn (Cynisca), Aia Shafi (Fount Cycling Guild) and Ashley Frye (Phase 1 Cycling), along with Galen Bolard (Competitive Edge Racing). They nearly closed the gap before the finish line, finally crossing just eight seconds behind the day's winner, Faulkner.

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