Kristen Faulkner competitive at Strade Bianche as she continues on comeback trail

EF Education-Cannondale’s Kristen Faulkner made a big impact at Strade Bianche on Saturday, a year after she was disqualified from the race following the illegal use of a blood glucose monitor.

Faulkner was active in the final stages of the race, launching attacks and joining a chasing group which included Demi Vollering (SD Worx-ProTime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), doing her best to try to drag them across to the leading pair of Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-ProTime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).

Though the chasers didn't rejoin the leaders, it was a valiant effort from Faulkner to get back up to the group after initially being distanced, and then put in a lot of work in the chase.

In the end, Faulkner finished in sixth position, her best result at the race, which she rode for the third time in her career.

Read more: Strade Bianche: Lotte Kopecky storms to victory ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini

Faulkner was happy with her own race on Saturday, though she was somewhat outspoken about the lack of cohesion in the final chase.

"I was in a tough position because Demi didn’t want to work as she had Lotte up the road, and Kasia, she didn’t want to go full gas with me," Faulkner said at the finish.

"So I felt like I was doing a lot of the effort, and I really needed her support too if we were going to catch them. I kept trying to encourage her but I think she didn’t want to gas herself too much.

"For me, I was racing for the win so I wanted to catch them, or what’s the point? I wasn’t racing for a podium. So I tried really hard to bridge but I felt like I was alone, and it’s one of those things that’s just really hard to do, if not everyone is into it fully."

Alaskan native Faulkner is still on the road back to her best form following a training crash in May 2023 which kept her out of top level riding for four months. The rider was hit by a car whilst training in California, causing a fracture to her knee, and was unable to return to the peloton until September 2024.

She claimed her first victory since the 2022 Giro Donne last weekend at the Omloop van het Hageland, launching a long-range solo attack to ride to victory, and continue the strong start to the season for her new team. EF have four wins under their belt already in 2024, despite being in their first year and racing at Continental level.

For Faulkner, Saturday's performance was another positive sign at the beginning of her season.

"I’m pretty happy with how I raced today," she said. "I was positioned well I had a really good lead-out into the final gravel sector, I think overall we raced really well. I’m like a 'go big or go home' type of attitude but overall I’m really happy with my performance and the team performance.’

In 2023, Faulkner was outspoken following her disqualification from Strade Bianche after wearing a continuous blood glucose monitor during the race, the use of which is not allowed in competition.

She finished third in her second appearance at the race, and claimed that the monitor had not been in use during the race itself, though her team at the time, Jayco Alula, accepted the disqualification, accepting that both rider and team were at fault for the error.

After her podium finish was stricken from the record in 2023, and sixth in Siena is now her official best result in Strade Bianche.

From Strade Bianche, Faulkner moves onto other Spring Classics including Gent-Wevelgem and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where she will be expected to be a key player for EF Education-Cannondale as they look to continue as they've started.