“We’ve made huge strides, but there’s still a long way to go”: Double Olympic champ Kristen Faulkner on Paris, being an outsider, and the growth of women’s cycling + Rainbows, frites, and sunburn at the Tour of Flanders

We’re deep into classics season, with Paris-Roubaix looming on the horizon, so this week’s episode of the road.cc Podcast pays homage to cycling’s biggest one-day events.

In part two, double Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner joins us from her altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada, as she prepares for the upcoming Ardennes classics following a turbulent start to the season marred by the concussion she suffered in a training crash in December.

The EF Education-Oatly leader chats about that mad week in Paris last summer, which saw her become the first American women to win gold medals in two different disciplines at the same Olympics, her plans for 2025, her outsider’s status within the peloton, and why, despite women’s cycling progressing rapidly in recent years, the sport has to acknowledge “how far there is to go”. 

And first up, Emily casts her eye over the cobbled classics season so far, and Ryan recaps an eventful, often chaotic day on the Oude Kwaremont at last weekend’s Tour of Flanders, reflecting on why the Ronde means so much not just to Belgium, but to cycling in general.

Oh, and we announce the winner of our coveted Episode 100 Jeremy Vine competition…