The reigning American champ will start her season this Sunday at the Tour of Flanders, a race she knows and loves. She began the year by heading to South America for the Pan American Games where she earned gold medals on the track in the team pursuit and the individual pursuit, before becoming the Pan American road race champion. Kristen sat down to talk about the injury that ended her 2025 season, what she’s been up to in the meantime, and why she thinks this might be her best season yet.

I tore my labrum at the Tour de France so my offseason started early with shoulder surgery and I was off the bike for at least two months. My shoulder is healed now which is good. The surgery went well. My shoulder is back to normal which is great. No complications. 

I spent my offseason in California. After having the shoulder surgery, when I started riding again, I just wanted to fall back in love with riding. For me, every offseason is just about enjoying my time on the bike because I know the season is so intense. I did two coast rides down California: from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and from San Francisco to LA. Those were amazing, so much fun. I went with a group of friends. Some days we rode over eight hours and that was really, really fun. 

I spent a lot of time in San Francisco. I really love the city because a lot of my friends are there and my former colleagues are there. There’s also a technology boom happening in San Francisco and I love being at the intersection of that with everything that’s going on.

I fell in love with old hobbies again. I studied computer science so I started building apps with AI on my computer. It was so nice to get back into old hobbies that had fallen by the wayside since I started professionally cycling. My offseason was productive and mentally refreshing.

After the Olympics, everything was so busy and I didn’t take a proper offseason because I was doing a lot of speaking and media events. The adrenaline was high. I was traveling a lot. I feel like I went into 2025 a bit burnt out even before the season even started. It was my worst year of racing in Europe. It’s the only year I didn’t win a race in Europe. So this offseason was the break that I needed all along. The shoulder surgery and having to take time off, at first I was pretty devastated but it ended up being such a blessing in disguise. I feel super rejuvenated now. It was really frustrating to not be able to do so many things. I had my arm in a sling so I couldn’t type, I couldn’t bike, I couldn’t do a lot of things. I was on the trainer for the first month back and it was so nice and sunny out, so it was hard to be stuck inside. But I was able to make lemonade out of lemons and make the most out of my offseason when I couldn’t bike. I also did a lot of running so it was really nice to be able to crosstrain.

It was my first time back on the track since the Olympics. It was really nice to be back on the track because I do love track and my best season on the road was the year I did track. It really helps me with my explosivity and it helps my time trialing so I feel like it’s going to be really good for my road season to have done this. Before the Olympics, every track session was a try out. It was so intense and to have been able to just get back on the track and to get to improve without the pressure was really nice. I’m really happy. One of my goals for the next few years in the time trial is to race it in the LA Olympics. Doing Pan-Ams was helpful for that. I raced the team pursuit and it was my first time racing the individual pursuit and that ability may transfer to racing a road prologue.

Then on the road, the Pan-Ams time trial was great because I won that in 2023 which was my first time doing Pan-Ams so to be able to come back and race it again and take the win again was really nice. It also gives me a lot of renewed focus. After the Olympics, I felt like I didn’t really know what my next goals were. The Olympics had been my goal for so many years and so in 2025 I think I was a little lost. I didn’t know what I was working toward. So to be able to feel like now I can focus again on the time trial is really motivating. It’s helpful to have a renewed goal.

I would like to win a stage at the Tour de France. My goal over the next two years is to wear the yellow jersey at some point, to win a Tour stage, I’d like to win some more time trials, and I’d like to get on the podium at Worlds in the time trial. I’ve won a stage at the Giro and the Vuelta so winning a stage at the Tour would round that out nicely. Those are my two primary goals: to win a stage at the Tour and to get on the podium in the time trial at Worlds.

I’d never been to Colombia before. I’d heard it was sort of the cycling capital of South America and I knew it was a big cycling destination so I’d always wanted to go. The people were so friendly, so welcoming. We’d be riding on the road and there’d be cars honking at us. At first I thought they were annoyed by us as cyclists but then they’d roll down their windows and cheer for us, “Go, go, go!” I felt super supported. One day I got coffee in a cafe and I got to chatting with the barista and mentioned that I wanted to explore the city. She said her husband was a taxi driver so he showed us around the city. It was so nice there.

With my shoulder surgery, the team didn’t know how my shoulder would feel. It can be a long recovery so the team didn’t initially put me in any cobbled classics and the plan was for me to come to Europe and start with the Ardennes. I could tell my fitness was really good from my training and my performance at the Pan-Ams. I told our DS Carmen I was coming back to Europe and she said, “If your fitness is good, why don’t we use it? Do you want to come to Flanders?” My first thought was, “Wow, that’s a fast turnaround!” but I think it will be good to get back into road racing before the Ardennes and just get to spend time with the team. I really miss my teammates. And of course I love Flanders. It’s such a fun race. It has a lot of the same course elements every year so there’s a familiarity to it. I’ll be in a support role because I'm a last minute call up but it’s the kind of race I can jump into and know what to do.

We have some really strong classics riders on our team. We saw that Noemi is in really good shape at Sanremo Women but I also think we have strong classics riders that can sneak their way to the front. They might not be on the radar in the same way that Longo Borghini and Vollering and Niewiadoma are, but I think that gives us an opportunity to be there while being a little sneaky about it. If we can play our cards well and be really smart, then we can surprise the field.

I’m doing the Ardennes. I’ve done those races almost every year. I really enjoy them. They’re really punchy. It’s a similar group of riders to the grand tours and I’m planning to do all three grand tours this summer so this spring is a good chance to ride with my teammates and get used to them and practice communicating. Racing is 50 percent about the race and 50 percent how you and your teammates blend together so having the chance to do that will be good. We really work well together and I’m excited to see how we can play these races.

I’ve really missed my teammates. I’ve missed racing but even more than that, I really miss my teammates. They’re some of my best friends. I’m really excited to get back and be with my teammates again.