Kristen Faulkner has confirmed the beginning of her season was delayed as a result of a concussion sustained in a crash whereas coaching final December and that she is now “totally recovered” and able to start her season with EF-Oatly-Cannondale on the revived girls’s Milan-San Remo on Saturday.
Faulkner mentioned that whereas it has taken about three months to get well, her staff was supportive throughout that point and there was no strain positioned on her to return to competitors earlier than she was healed.
“I’m lastly feeling higher, which is so good. The restoration course of was very up and down. I assumed I used to be good after which I went to staff camp and I needed to depart staff camp early,” Faulkner mentioned in an EF-Oatly-Cannondale press launch.
“From the staff’s standpoint, it was higher simply to ensure I used to be totally recovered and never put a timeline on it, not put strain on me to carry out at any upcoming race. Simply be 100% wholesome and prepared by the point I get again. I felt like I used to be allowed to let my physique heal by itself timeline which is absolutely vital.
“I admire that the staff mentioned, ‘No strain. Let’s let your physique do what it’s going to do and we’ll put you in racing whenever you’re wholesome.’ So I didn’t have any stress or strain to get again to racing straight away.”
Faulkner is contracted to race with EF-Oatly-Cannondale by means of 2026. She had an distinctive season in 2024 the place she gained the elite girls’s highway race title on the USA Biking Nationwide Championships adopted by two gold medals on the Olympic Video games within the highway race and staff pursuit.
Nonetheless, questions arose when Faulkner had not joined the staff within the early races on the calendar and appeared to delay the beginning of her season.
Faulkner advised Cyclingnews through e-mail that she was initially supposed to start out her season at Trofeo Ponente in Rosa in March however the occasion was then cancelled. EF-Oatly-Cannondale later confirmed her begin at Milan-San Remo.
She mentioned {that a} later begin to the racing season may find yourself being helpful to her targets for occasions later within the yr.
“It means I’ll have a greater second half of the season. Usually, I’d are available and have a superb Classics marketing campaign and this yr I’m really sitting out of the cobbled classics and focusing extra on the Ardennes and the Vuelta,” she mentioned.
“So, Milan-San Remo will likely be a very good likelihood for me to get again within the peloton a bit of bit later than regular.”
