The Australian national anthem echoed across Zurich on Wednesday afternoon as Grace Brown, alongside Brodie Chapman, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, Michael Matthews, Jay Vine, and Ben O’Connor, clinched another time trial world title at the UCI Road World Championships in the Mixed Relay team time trial.
The team, donned in green and gold, narrowly edged out Germany by 0.85 seconds and Italy by 8.25 seconds to secure gold medals and rainbow jerseys. Brown sang the Australian national anthem for the second time in four days, marking what is potentially her final time trial before her retirement.
The men’s trio set the fastest time of 33:44 for their 26.85km lap on the course used for the World Championship road races. While the Australian women lost Roseman-Gannon earlier than expected due to her exertion on the climb, Brown and Chapman managed to pace their ride effectively, overtaking Germany, who had started just before them.
O’Connor, Matthews, and Vine finished together, pushing hard. O’Connor drew on his form from the Vuelta a España podium, Vine made a strong comeback from his crash in Sunday’s individual time trial, and Matthews tested his form for Sunday’s road race with a rare but solid performance on a time trial bike.
O’Connor shared his excitement after the race, saying, “We’ve all won Grand Tour stages and worn Grand Tour leaders’ jerseys, and it was great to share this with Jay and Michael. We pushed hard when needed and rode smartly when necessary. It was fun out there.”
Matthews, however, had mixed feelings about the experience. “I didn’t prepare for a time trial; I think I’ve only ridden my TT bike two or three times since the Tour de France, so it hurt,” he explained. “I wanted to see the road race course at full speed and full intensity. I think that will be an advantage for Sunday.”
He added, “I’ve won this event when it was a trade team race, but we didn’t get a rainbow jersey. To get a rainbow jersey with my national teammates is massive for us. We did really well in the men’s ride, and then the women brought it home. It couldn’t have gone much better.”
Vine, racing with a plaster over the stitches in his forehead, was justifiably proud of his performance. “Any gold medal at the World Championships is incredible. This rainbow jersey will be framed and put in my pool room,” he said.
Grace Brown, emotional and proud after her ‘last dance’ which included a gold medal in the Paris Olympic time trial, explained their strategy, “When the men came through and set the fastest time, we headed off perfectly. We wanted to finish it off.”
Brown and Chapman distanced Roseman-Gannon early on their lap but decided to push as a duo. Australia was five seconds faster at the intermediate time check and fought to maintain their lead. “It made me excited to head off and know that we weren’t fighting back from a deficit,” Brown explained. “We went too hard on the climb and put Ruby into the red, but we knew we had to cut our losses and go down to two riders.”
She added, “We didn’t realise it was that close, but our DS was pushing us via the radio, so we knew it was tight. We gave everything in the last kilometre to gain that extra second. We ended up empty, but it was enough to win.”
2024 World Championships Mixed Team Relay
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