Kristen Faulkner of the United States rode her way to a shock gold medal in the women’s cycling road race on Sunday at the Paris Olympics, while Hong Kong, China's Ceci Lee completed the challenging 158-kilometre course just a few minutes behind the leaders.

The American surprised crowds as she finished in a little under four hours, beating some of the world’s best for the Olympic victory.

Marianne Vos of the Netherlands, who won this event in the London Olympics, took home silver, while Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky secured the bronze medal.

The duo of Vos and Blanka Vas of Hungary were leading the pack with just a little under four kilometres left of the gruelling race, before Faulkner and Kopoecky began to accelerate towards the end.

The American ended up moving ahead of the leading group, finishing with a time of 3 hours, 59 minutes and 23 seconds near the beautiful Eiffel Tower.

Vos, Kopecky and Vas completed in a photo finish, 58 seconds behind the champion, but Vas unfortunately was a smidge behind and missed the podium.

Lee completed the course in a remarkable 4 hours, 10 minutes and 47 seconds, just around eleven minutes behind the gold medalist. The SAR athlete ranked 64th overall out of 92 cyclists, with 14 unable to complete the race.

Lee said after the race she felt she was in good condition, and the course was more difficult than she expected with many steep climbs.

She said while racing, she felt she had to toughen up so as not to waste the hard work the team and herself had put in in training. And she's glad she accomplished her goal of finishing the race.

"I was rather satisfied – because I just checked all the data, they were basically my best times," she told reporters. "So I would say it was a new level [of achievement]. So I hope I can build on this and perform even better in the upcoming race."

Lee, 23, will be back in action on the track in the omnium on Sunday – the closing day of the Paris Games.

The cyclists had to overcome 1,700 metres of climbing in nine ascents, passing by various landmarks in and around the host city.
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Last updated: 2024-08-05 HKT 01:24