Road Race, Individual, Women

The road race started and finished on the Pont d’Iéna bridge that spans the River Seine. The 158-kilometre course went through several suburbs of Paris and the surrounding areas, including two loops of the city and three climbs of Montmartre. A total of 92 riders started the race, the largest number of cyclists to start the women’s road race at the Olympics.

Pre-race favorites included the defending World Road Race champion Lotte Kopecky (BEL), former World champions Marianne Vos (NED) and Lizzie Deignan (GBR), the defending Giro Donne champion Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA), and the World and USA time trial champion Chloé Dygert. Anna Kiesenhofer, who pulled off a surprise win at the Tokyo Games, was also on the start line to defend her Olympic title.

The race began at 14:10, with only the Dutch, Belgian, and Italian teams starting with their full quota of four riders each. An early breakaway formed before a serious counter-attack was started 90 km from the finish. Arriving at the foot of the first ascent of the Sacré Coeur, a crash hampered Dygert and Kopecky, with a short-lived attack being made by the leaders, before both riders were able to get back into the main peloton.

With 22 km remaining, a three-up attack instigated by Lizzie Deignan, Marianne Vos, and Blanka Vas (HUN) took off, before Deignan was dropped before the final climb of Montmartre. The duo of Vos and Vas powered on, both looking likely to finish on the podium, but were soon chased down by Kopecky and American Kristen Faulkner. As none of the four leaders agreed to work together, Faulkner made an attack just three kilometres from the finish. It paid off, with Faulkner becoming the first American woman to win the Olympic road race since Connie Carpenter-Phinney won the inaugural race at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

The trio of Vos, Kopecky, and Vas lined up for the sprint for the remaining two medals, with Vos taking silver on the line just ahead of Kopecky, and Vas finishing in the same time but outside the medals. Defending Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer finished 52nd, in a group of a dozen riders who were almost eight minutes behind Faulkner’s winning time.