Homer cyclist nabs national title in road race championship

Kristen Faulkner. (EF Education-Cannondale)

Kristen Faulkner, 31, won this year’s Elite Women’s Road Race successful West Virginia. She vanished nan 127-kilometer title successful nether 3 and a half hours, beating nan adjacent racer by almost a minute.

While she says she competed successful sports her full life, nan Homer jock began her cycling travel 7 years agone successful New York. Faulkner worked successful nan finance manufacture astatine nan clip and went to an introductory cycling session successful Central Park.

“New York City’s this actual jungle, and truthful my clip successful Central Park was really benignant of my ‘me time’ each time to consciousness for illustration I was successful arsenic overmuch quality arsenic I could get successful Manhattan,” she said.

The adjacent year, she moved to California and sewage much superior astir cycling. After doing her first roadworthy title successful Europe, Faulkner says she sewage hooked connected master racing and switched to competing afloat time.

“When I started cycling, I was moving astatine a table job, and I thought, you know, I could activity a table occupation for nan adjacent decade, aliases I could thrust my motorcycle extracurricular for nan adjacent decade,” she said, “and I deliberation being from Alaska and having specified a passion for nan outdoors, it was clear to maine which 1 I really loved a batch more,” she said.

She now lives successful Girona, Spain, which she says is nan epicenter for cyclists.

At nan extremity of past year, Faulkner joined EF Education-Cannondale, an American women’s master cycling team. The squad made a scatter earlier this period by placing 3rd wide astatine La Vuelta Femenina successful Spain — 1 of 3 expansive tours held each twelvemonth for women. This year’s Vuelta is much than 880 kilometers and is divided up into 8 races, aliases stages.

Faulkner won nan 4th stage. She says doing good astatine nan Vuelta was particularly important for her aft getting deed by a car led her to create a humor clot successful her lung past year.

“I had to return 3 months disconnected of riding, and I wasn’t judge really it’s going to travel back,” she said, “and truthful to travel backmost patient and beardown and beryllium competing against, you know, nan champion successful nan world, and winning was a really breathtaking point for maine to person happen.”

Faulkner yet began training indoors and moreover won a title astatine nan extremity of nan past season. She began this play becoming comfortable pinch racing again. Faulkner says recovering from nan wounded became much of a psychological travel than a beingness one.

“I deliberation emotionally, it was really difficult for maine to benignant of spot cycling again, and spot that I could beryllium safe and to really fto myself spell each retired connected these climbs, and particularly connected nan distance,” she said.

As a nationalist champion, Faulkner will beryllium 1 of a fistful of athletes who tin compete wearing a jersey pinch an American emblem creation for nan adjacent year. In summation to roadworthy racing, Faulkner is besides 1 of nine athletes being considered for nan U.S Olympic squad for women’s team pursuit — an indoor cycling arena wherever teams of 4 title against each different connected a track.