HK's Lee 11 minutes back as US star takes road race

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. She's due back in action on the track later in the week in the ominium. The cyclists had to overcome 1,700 metres of climbing in nine ascents, passing by various landmarks in and around the host city.