Kristen Faulkner claimed her second consecutive U.S. National Road Race Championship title yesterday with a tactical masterclass in Charleston, West Virginia. The EF Education-Oatly rider overcame a late start to her season and raced solo without teammates, relying on sharp instincts and a well-timed sprint to secure a dramatic victory.
“I had a slow start to the season just coming back from an injury, so this season started very differently from last year,” Faulkner said after the race. “This was the first race where I really felt strong and I really wanted to win. I’ve loved having the jersey, especially with the gold Olympic bands, and so I feel like this race was the first race where I could really come back and set the tone for the rest of the season.”
Racing without team support in the peloton, Faulkner knew she had to stay sharp and conserve energy. She rode conservatively through the early laps, marking key moves but holding back until the final kilometers when the race split apart.
“I knew we had to catch Emma Langley,” Faulkner said of the decisive moment. “She’s quite strong and I knew that none of the other teams were going to do a lot of work because they were looking at me and because people were starting to get tired. So I knew the burden was on me to catch Emma.”
With the break reeled in and the finish line looming, Faulkner executed a bold strategy. Rather than launching an early attack, she gambled on her sprint—an area she had focused on during the off-season.
“I’ve been working on my sprint a lot this winter, so I thought yesterday would be a perfect day to try it out,” she said. “I went into the sprint knowing I wanted a sprint and I thought I could win from a sprint. It actually worked out really nicely. I knew as long as I stayed on Lauren’s wheel I had a good chance of beating her.”
In the final straight, Faulkner surged past Lauren Stephens (Aegis Cycling Foundation) to win by a bike length, confirming her place as one of the top all-rounders in American cycling.
The 2025 campaign has been anything but predictable for Faulkner, who delayed her start to the season following an off-season concussion. Entering nationals with fewer than a dozen race days in her legs, she still showed the grit and self-belief that have defined her career.
“It’s such an honor to wear the Stars and Stripes again,” she said with pride, her eyes already set on what’s to come.
