MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Forty years after winning gold in Los Angeles, Connie Carpenter-Phinney watched in nervous anticipation — praying, pleading, holding her breath in hope — that Kristen Faulkner could hold on in the road race at the Paris Olympics. When she did, completing an audacious ride , Carpenter-Phinney was no longer alone. She was no longer the first, and last, woman to win a road cycling gold medal for the United States.
“It was a beautiful finish,” Carpenter-Phinney told The Associated Press, “and I’m proud to have this company in this small and very special category of women Olympic road race champions.” It was a monumental upset, given that Faulkner wasn’t even supposed to race Sunday. The Americans only qualified two spots in the women’s road race for Paris.
Chloe Dygert automatically received one by winning the world time trial title, and Taylor Knibb secured the other by winning the U.S. time trial title.
But when , Faulkner became the obvious replacement. She already was on her way to Paris to compete with Dygert in the team pursuit in the velodrome. And her road resume this season had been outstanding.
Faulkner won Omloop van het Hageland, a prestigious one-day road race in Belgium, and she had captured a stage at La Vuelta Feminina, one of the biggest events on the women’s calendar. She also won the U.S.
road race in May, even though it didn’t get her automatically on the Olympic team. “I made an agreement with my.