Kristen Faulkner

Kristen Faulkner is known for being aggressive in a bike race, be it a time trial or a road race. The Alaska native, born December 18, 1992, attributes high risk-high reward tendencies in cycling to her first career as a venture capitalist. She moved into cycling in late 2020 with Team TIBCO-SVB in the US and invested all efforts into being a full-time pro cyclist from 2021 with the Continental team.

The first year with TIBCO, Faulkner won a stage at Tour Feminin l'Ardeche and scored top 20s in Brabantse Pijl and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. The next season she won a stage at the Ladies Tour of Norway en route to third overall, plus added a podium at the GP de Plouay, and top 10s at Gent-Wevelgem and US Pro Nationals road race.

BikeExchange-Jayco recognised her as a talented rider who could be a team leader for the women’s WorldTour squad and signed her for two seasons. She soared to new heights, earning third on GC at the early-season Itzulia Women stage race and then taking second overall at the Tour de Suisse Women, with a stage win in the ITT. In top form, she won two stages at the Giro d’Italia Donne - the prologue and hilly stage 9 to San Lorenzo Dorsino - and finished with the mountains classification.

Lots of ups and downs disrupted 2023 for the US rider, beginning with a disqualification from Strade Bianche for wearing a glucose monitor. She had rolled across the line in third, but the UCI deemed the monitor, even though the sensor was not engaged, was a rules violation. Then she suffered injuries when a driver of a car hit her while on a training ride, a hairline fracture of her leg healing quickly but a blood clot in her lung keeping her away from riding a bike outside for three full months. 

Faulkner missed the Tour de France Femmes and the Giro, but returned for the Tour de Romandie and Pan American Games, where she won the gold medal in the time trial.

2024 was her best season to date by, with her first Vuelta a España stage win and National road title both notable highlights of the first part of the season. However, these early successes were eclipsed by her two career-defining wins in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, seeing off the favourites with a superbly calculated late attack to clinch a solo victory in the road race, and also forming part of the team pursuit squad that seized the country's first ever team gold on the track. As a result, she is the first American woman ever to take two gold medals in two different disciplines in the same Olympic Games.

Key Results

2024

🥇 Elite Road Race Paris Olympic Games

🥇 Olympic Team Pursuit

🥇 National Championships (Road Race)

🥇 One stage, Vuelta España Femenina

2023

🥇 Pan American Games ITT

2022

🥇 Two stages and mountains classification at Giro d'Italia Donne

🥇 One stage at Tour de Suisse Women

🥈 One stage, points classification and GC at Tour de Suisse Women

🥉 One stage at Itzulia Women

🥉 Navarra Women’s Elite Classics

2021

🥇 One stage at Tour of Norway

🥉 GP de Plouay

🥉 GC at Tour of Norway

2020

🥇 One stage at Tour Feminin l'Ardeche

🥉 Mountains classification at Tour Feminin l'Ardeche