Kristen Faulkner’s Crash May Mean The End of Her Tour de France Femmes
After being hit by a car while training in California, team Jayco-AlUla racer Kristen Faulkner’s hopes of returning to this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the 2023 Giro Donne are in sudden jeopardy.
Though there are currently few details about the incident itself, Faulkner’s team tweeted that she suffered a “small fracture to her knee” in the accident. Beyond the fact that Faulkner was training in California, it is not known exactly where or how the crash occurred.
Additionally, the team has not yet presented a timeline for Faulkner’s return, only stating that she will be “unable to race until the knee has healed.”
The accident took Faulkner out of this year's Giro DonneDonne, which starts on Friday. In all likelihood, it will also keep her sidelined for the Tour de France Femmes, which starts on July 23, 2023. That timeline gives Faulkner less than a month to heal and train in time for the eight-stage race’s opening slate; a seventy-seven-mile hilly loop starting and ending in Clermont-Ferrand.
And though it’s impossible to say without knowing further details of the severity of the injury, fractured knees don’t heal in a few short weeks.
Faulkner was hoping to use this year’s Tour de France Femmes as a chance to kickstart her inauspicious year. Her second season with Jayco-AlUla outfit has been one of the quietest of her career, as she’s missed the podium in all but one race she’s started.
That race, the Strade Bianche, saw Faulkner spend much of the day off the front in a stunning solo attack. She was eventually caught by Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx, finishing third. However, that third-place was stripped from Faulkner when she was disqualified for wearing a continuous glucose monitor during the race.
A few days after the UCI’s decision, Faulkner struck back, releasing a statement in which, while accepted the disqualification, said she “never used glucose data in competition, which I provided ample evidence of to the UCI.”
The 30-year-old Alaskan signed with Jayco-AlUla before the start of last season, immediately stepping into the role of team leader. Her tenure with the Australian team started off with a bang, as Faulkner netted podiums in last year’s Tour de Suisse and Itzulia Women. She also won a pair of stages during the season and captured the mountains jersey in the Giro d’Italia Donne.
However, after suffering a few crashes in the early stages of last year’s Tour de France Femmes, those kinds of successes have eluded Faulkner.
Beyond the disqualified third-place, Faulkner finished eighth in the opening time trial of this year’s La Vuelta Femenina. Her next best finishes were in Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl, where she finished each in nineteenth place.
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