Her biggest victory came in April, when Stevens became the first American woman to win the Fleche Wallone in Belgium. After 75 miles of racing, it was just Stevens and the defending champion, Marianne Vos, battling it out wheel-to-wheel, on the steep climb to the finish. In that moment, she says, the roar of the crowd faded away.
“I didn’t hear anything. It just went, like, it was my first real experience of extreme tunnel vision,” Stevens says. “All I could focus on, I was just telling myself, ‘This is now, this is when you do it’ — and just going, digging deeper than I’ve ever dug. I saw her wheel, and then I realized I was coming around it, and then I saw the finish line. And it was the most, yeah, the most exhilarating feeling and experience I’ve ever had.”
