Preparation is everything for a time-trial. Knowledge is power, even if actual power goes a long way too.<\/p>\n
But as Kristen Faulkner knows well from yesterday, the race of truth also comes down to courage.<\/p>\n
Take her terrifying 90km\/h descent off the decisive climb into Dijon on stage four Tuesday, aware that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage win was in the balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a race where I had to go out of my comfort zone, not just physically, but in terms of mental discomfort as well,\u201d Faulkner told Velo<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept telling myself the whole time on the descent \u2018you can\u2019t have bravery without fear,\u2019\u201d the American says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds kind of cheesy, but it\u2019s because I feel like compared to riders that have been racing since they were 15, I get a little bit more nervous on really fast downhills on the skis [TT bars].\u201d<\/p>\n
The Olympic road race and team pursuit champion was challenging for victory Tuesday, finishing sixth on the 21km TT between Gevrey-Chambertin and Dijon, 56 seconds behind new race leader Marlen Reusser.<\/p>\n
Months of perspiration, inspiration and\u00a0 hardwork were geared towards her\u00a028 minute 24 second effort.<\/p>\n
It takes a whole team to support the leader in her big goal. EF Education-Oatly and Faulkner took Velo <\/i>behind the scenes of the race yesterday to chart everything that goes into maximiszng her effort.<\/p>\n Time-trial day is the longest of the Tour de France Femmes for every team. EF Education-Oatly rolls into the start at around 9:15, overlooking verdant vineyards.<\/p>\n One of their first tasks is taking every Cannondale Lab71 race bike to be checked by the UCI commissaires to make sure they conform with the rules.<\/p>\n Stages such as this involve long moments of waiting and fuelling \u2013 I count 13 takeaway pizza boxes on the team bus-adjacent trestle tables around lunchtime \u2013 punctuated by moments of action.<\/p>\n Commentators might talk about having good legs or bad legs but Faulkner believes \u201cpreparation is far more important than having good legs. I think our performance can be planned out months in advance, and the things we do to prepare are what make or break our race day \u2013 a lot more than whether we wake up having a good night\u2019s sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n The team\u2019s schedule has military precision. For Faulkner, everything is noted down, from her arrival time at the team bus area to her 27-minute warm-up start time and the time she should leave the team bus, 18 minutes ahead of starting her race at 4:20 local time.<\/p>\n At 13:15, about 30 minutes after arriving, Faulkner and teammates C\u00e9drine Kerbaol and Noemi R\u00fcegg roll out to do a course recon. This is useful for riders, committing key parts to memory, and staff alike.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have some areas on the route that in the car or on VeloViewer, you think it\u2019s going to be fine, you realise it\u2019s a little bit more complicated to handle it,\u201d EF head of performance Fabien Rabeau says.<\/p>\n He gives the example of going through a town on the route with small cobblestones which he hadn\u2019t flagged before, making the surface a little more slippery.<\/p>\n This TT is the tip of the iceberg. \u201cAll the way through the season, we are preparing for specific events,\u201d Rabeau adds. \u201cEvery race, every block of training should bring us to some place. It\u2019s like a giant Lego and every time we are doing one, it\u2019s one piece on top of another and at the end, you have the big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n The weather matters too: Rabeau was aware of a possibility of rain but it did not come to fruition. They keep an eye on the wind too, with a tailwind onto the 2-km steeper part bringing more speed onto the hill and influencing the descent off it.<\/p>\n The race is the culmination of winter training getting used to the bike, past races and different pacing strategies, alongside all the R&D partnerships, working with SRAM for gearing, Vision wheels and Vittoria tires.<\/p>\n The recon is a chance for Faulkner to get used to the new POC TT helmet, which she has not worn before. GC contender C\u00e9drine Kerbaol also has a new skinsuit for the race from Assos, tested in the wind tunnel.<\/p>\n As for goals for Faulkner? \u201cTop five will be great today,\u201d he says, an hour and a half before her start time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just tech; a contender has to be fuelled. Faulkner has eggs and rice two hours before the TT, a carbohydrate-packed meal.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally, they take three grams per kilogram before the TT,\u201d team nutritionist Amaia Martioda says. \u201cFor the riders that are prioritizing doing well there because of the team\u2019s strategy, we use some supplements to improve their performance a little more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use bicarb an hour and a hour before the start time,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Hydration is also paramount in the 85-degree conditions. Every stage finish is a new start line for returning to optimal levels.<\/p>\n EF Education-Oatly\u2019s medical team test the riders\u2019 hydration daily via urine osmolarity. If it reads 1020 mOsm\/kg or over, they could consider them dehydrated and more emphasis might be put on pre-hydration. \u201cBut until now [in this race], we are under those numbers,\u201d Martioda says.<\/p>\n Warming up with a black Ego fan on full blast in the shaded area by the team bus, Faulkner says that she found the stage 3 heat much worse than during the TT, given the wind on her going at 45km\/h compared to four hours in 35 degrees.<\/p>\n While the riders warm up with cooling vests and ice socks down their neck, they can no longer race with the latter.<\/p>\n Last month, the UCI banned ice socks in skinsuits under article 1.3.032 of the governing body\u2019s regulations, as an accessory which \u201cmay not modify the morpohology of the rider\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say that Faulkner is not a fan of the ruling. \u201cI think it\u2019s very unfortunate and sad that the UCI doesn\u2019t let us wear ice on our backs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things riders do that are really unhealthy that make us faster. I find it crazy that we\u2019re not allowed to do something that is healthy for us and I wish the UCI didn\u2019t ban things that are extremely healthy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIce is aerodynamic, it is pretty cheap. And it\u2019s not like it\u2019s an unfair advantage because every woman has access to ice, even some of the lower-budget teams.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at a great equaliser, this is so much less significant than a $1,000 aero bar.\u201d<\/p>\n Faulkner\u2019s last meal pre-race is an Amacx Turbo gel two minutes beforehand.<\/p>\n Then it\u2019s time to race. Pan-American champion Faulkner is quickly into her aero positioned once out of the start village of Gevrey-Chambertin on the 21km race.<\/p>\n As for her TT helmet, Faulkner trusted the process. \u201cIt was good, I really like everything POC produces. I\u2019d never trained in it before so it took a lot of trust to wear it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was a leap of faith to wear something I\u2019d never trained on, but turns out it worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n What was she telling herself during the effort? \u201cI really try to focus on the here and now and be really present,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I\u2019m going up the climb, I\u2019m not thinking about the descent.<\/p>\n \u201cI focused a lot on my breathing, on staying relaxed, on my head and shoulder position, on maintaining the power I think I should hold at that moment.<\/p>\n Faulkner listens to her body and asks herself how she feels, regardless of the numbers she set out to ride.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat matters is whether I\u2019m in control the whole time from an effort standpoint. It\u2019s uncomfortable, but you should never feel like you\u2019re overreaching.<\/p>\n \u201cI always felt like I was very much in control of the effort the whole time and it wasn\u2019t controlling me, which is a good feeling to have.\u201d<\/p>\n She is not a rider who needs a lot of motivation in the race radio. Faulkner prefers objective feedback, especially given the numerous traffic islands on the route.<\/p>\n \u201cI send some markers and feedback points to the DS [Carmen Small] ahead of time to have her tell me which side of the road to be on, whether there\u2019s a traffic island, things that help me race it more strategically.\u201d<\/p>\n It can also be about knowing how much speed she can take into the corners and their width, the straightest line to race and thinking about how momentum carries from a descent into an uphill influenced how hard she would push going down.<\/p>\n It was a TT of two halves, the first part dictated by the 2-kilometer climb of the Lacets de Marsannay before a speedy, corner-strewn descent.<\/p>\n Faulkner was \u201cvery pleasantly surprised\u201d by how well she climbed, going faster than most GC contenders. While disappointed to lose time on the descent, clocking a top speed of 87km\/h there, she expected it.<\/p>\n \u201cDescending on the skis [TT bars] when it\u2019s windy has always been something that makes me a bit nervous,\u201d she said. \u201cThe pavement wasn\u2019t super smooth which probably added to my nerves,\u201d<\/p>\n She had spent a couple of days doing TT specific skills at her altitude camp in Utah for several hours, going through tight corners at speed, nailing the technical side.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt more comfortable on my TT bike than I\u2019ve ever felt, just in terms of the smoothness and not braking too hard,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Faulkner was pleased to come away with sixth, 54 seconds behind stage winner Marlen Reusser.<\/p>\n \u201cI thrive on straight flat TTs and this was none of that so it makes me feel reality motivated going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Once over the line, the recovery game re-starts. Faulkner had some Amacx cherry juice and two bottles of water.<\/p>\n She drank a recovery protein shake and ate a post-race carbohydrate-rich poke bowl with some rice before focusing on hydrating with iced water and electrolytes, sitting in her air conditioned hotel room \u2013 never a given in France \u2013 before massage and dinner.<\/p>\n After the last stage, food and drink will not be optimized for recovery. Faulkner has her mind on a cheat meal to celebrate finishing the Tour de France Femmes in Nice.<\/p>\n \u201cI really want a Radler, which is a lemonade beer. I love those, I don\u2019t drink much alcohol, I really like the zero per cent ones.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd for food, maybe a really good hamburger or gelato.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/on-the-limit-behind-the-scenes-of-olympic-champion-kristen-faulkners-tour-tt\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289056981-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 5, 2026 10:58AM Preparation is everything for a time-trial. Knowledge is power, even if actual power goes a long way too. But as Kristen Faulkner knows well from yesterday, the race of truth also comes down to courage. Take her terrifying 90km\/h descent off the decisive climb into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2078895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2078895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2078895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2078895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2078895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pizza and preparation<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"Pizza](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0068-3-720x960.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Revising strategy after the recon<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-04-at-20.07.25-720x480.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Rice, eggs and bicarb to fuel a contender\u2019s race<\/b><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0069-scaled-e1785929465881-720x715.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Hydrate to be great<\/b><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-04-at-20.07.39-720x480.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Faulkner: UCI\u2019s rule banning TT ice socks is \u2018crazy\u2019<\/b><\/h2>\n
Faulkner\u2019s race of truth<\/b><\/h2>\n
In control, on the limit<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How TT technical skills training helped Faulkner<\/h2>\n
Recuperating for another day<\/strong><\/h2>\n