The Olympic champion reigns in Zurich. In the second day of competition of the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships Australia’s Grace Brown claimed gold in the Women Elite individual time trial.
Just two months after her triumph at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Grace Brown became the first rider to win the ITT at the Olympic Games and the UCI Worlds in the same year.
Covering the 29.9km in 39’16’’, Brown was joined on the podium by the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering (+16’’) – claiming her second UCI World Championships medal after silver last year in the road race – and the USA’s Chloé Dygert (+56’’), who took bronze after winning the event in 2019 and 2023.
“It honestly feels like I’m in a dream these last couple of months,” Brown celebrated after a thrilling scenario saw her power to her third ITT gold medal this year (she began 2024 with the Nationals, before the Olympic Games and the UCI Worlds), her final season as a professional. The 32-year-old Aussie had the strongest start but Vollering was leading by almost 10 seconds at the second checkpoint (km 20.5). Still, Brown flew towards victory at the Sechseläutenplatz, in Zürich.
“I think definitely the experience of the Olympics and having that success on my shoulders already gave me a lot of confidence and as I was riding in the last couple of kilometres I just kept telling myself I can be a UCI World Champion and that gave me the strength to push all the way until the end,” Brown added before confirming she will retire in a few weeks: “I just feel really lucky to have had the end of my career like this, it’s special.”
Few days later she won also the team time trial mixed relay, the final time trial event of the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships, with Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor, Jay Vine, Brodie Chapman and Ruby Roseman-Gannon. With a time of 1h12’52’’ to cover 53.7km around Zurich (Switzerland), the Australian National Team powered to the gold medal in the most thrilling fashion. Marco Brenner, Miguel Heidemann, Maximilian Schachmann, Franziska Koch, Liane Lippert and Antonia Niedermaier took silver for Germany with a gap of 0.85 seconds. Italy completed the podium with Edoardo Affini, Mattia Cattaneo, Filippo Ganna, Elisa Longo Borghini, Soraya Paladin and Gaia Realini (+8’’).
Brown and her teammates eventually sealed the deal with the closest margin, delivering Grace a new UCI world title just before retiring. “I think I’m feeling a little bit greedy, I need a few more rainbow jerseys in my closet,” Grace Brown said with a smile. She is the first rider to win both the ITT and the team time trial mixed relay in the same edition of the UCI Road Worlds. “This one is really nice, doing it with the whole Aussie crew,” she added.
photo ©UCI
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