Olympic Cycling Road: When your only tool is a hammer

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Everything starts to look like a nail, or so the adage goes. For Kristin Faulkner of the United States, she had no sprint, she had only one tactic and one tool in her toolkit – brute force of riding away from everyone else, she just had to hope the race turned into a nail. 

As is customary, a group of riders got away early in the hope they could repeat the exploits of Austrian rider Anna Kiesenhofer at the Tokyo Olympics, three years ago and win against all odds. Alas it was to no avail and in the latter stages the race broke up into small groups. 

Ahead were Marianne Vos (NLD) and Kata Blanka Vas (HUN)- Vos and Vas clearly riding to establish between them which middle vowel was superior. Behind them was a group of Faulkner, Lotte Kopecky (BEL), Pfeiffer Georgi (GBR), Noemi Ruegg (SWI) and Mavi Garcia (ESP). 

The latter three dropped from the pressure of Faulkner and only Kopecky could keep up. Between the two they managed to close the gap to Vos and Vas, leaving four riders vying for just three medals.

But then the American did the only thing she could and attacked the group. If there was any hesitation brewing behind, she’d get a gap and be very difficult to pursue. 

Would they hesitate or would they be decisive – it could almost be a coin flip decision but what choice did Faulkner have? If she waited for a sprint she’d never win, at least this way she had a chance. 

Vas was unlikely to ride, she’s the more junior of the riders and although a star in her own right, her level isn’t on par to those of Vos or Kopecky.

Vos won’t ride because when all things are equal Kopecky is a better sprinter, but then Kopecky had just ridden hard to keep up with Faulkner, so why risk damaging her own chances of gold by undoing her hard work and bringing Faulkner back to then be rolled in the sprint. 

There was enough indecision to create the gap and the American had flown – she soloed to the finish and won. She had one tactic available and that was enough. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail… luckily this race was one.