As Grace Brown approaches the final months of her professional cycling career, she aspires to achieve a golden finish for Australia in the womenโs time trial at the Paris Olympic Games. The 32-year-old from Melbourne narrowly missed out on a medal in the Tokyo Games ITT, finishing fourth, but has significantly improved since then. She secured silver medals at both the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, coming just 12 seconds behind Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) in 2022 and six seconds behind Chloe Dygert (United States) in 2023.
“I think it would be hard to have really high goals if I hadnโt come that close before: twice now at the World Championships. I can see that winning is possible,” Brown mentioned in a news release from AusCycling earlier this week. “You still carry a little bit of hurt that you werenโt able to do it in those opportunities. All sorts of thoughts go through your head when you are hurting in the middle of a race, but to know that twice Iโve been so close, just to have that extra incentive and say to myself, ‘OK, you need to make up that extra five seconds,’ every second counts.”
The competition landscape has changed since the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo Games. The three riders who claimed medals ahead of Brown are not on the starting line. Dutch riders Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen have retired, and Swiss rider Marlen Reusser is sidelined by illness. Yet, the competition remains fierce.
“The goal is to win it,” said Brown. “There are maybe four time triallists, including myself, capable of winning the race. Itโs going to be a bit of a surprise who actually comes out on top and who misses the podium. Itโs hard to put a definite bet on who. Iโm aiming for that gold medal, and if I fall short and land on the podium, Iโm still going to be really happy with that, but hopefully not fourth,” she added with a laugh.
Brown faces tough competition from recent World Champions in the discipline: Dygert and Van Dijk. Van Dijk has quickly returned to impressive form following the birth of her first child but has had to recover from a broken ankle. Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) is another strong contender, having edged out Brown in the opening Giro dโItalia time trial. Demi Vollering’s strength as a GC rider is undeniable, and she recently won the individual time trial at the Tour de Suisse.
The field also includes road World Champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Christina Schweinberger (Switzerland) who secured third at last year’s World Championships, and Anna Henderson (Great Britain), the European Championships runner-up. All are in contention for a top-five spot in the flat 32.4-kilometre time trial.
Despite the formidable lineup, Brown heads into her second Olympic Games with confidence. She has already clinched a prestigious victory at Liรจge-Bastogne-Liรจge this season, has had a smooth lead-up to prepare, and possesses much more experience than during her first Games. “There are so many things about time trialling that Iโve learned since then and Iโve really fine-tuned the race process,” said Brown.