RISE FROM GRACE

From runner to one of the best riders in the peloton, Grace Brown has had a meteoric rise. Owen Rogers finds out how she did it

- Owen Rogers

A year ago you’d likely only have heard of Grace Brown if you’d been paying close attention.

There had been victory in the 2018 Oceania time trial championship and the Australian title the following year. There was a stage win at the Tour Down Under the next season, and a couple of months later she was off the front in the freezing rain of Ronde van Drenthe. But it was only last autumn that she really stepped into the limelight.

Attacking on the Roche-aux-Faucons, 16km from the finish of last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the 28-year-old Australian began to take chunks from Lizzie Deignan’s one-minute advantage. It was a nail-biting final as Brown closed the Trek-Segafredo rider down, and though she failed, she finished second, only nine seconds back.

Days later she took a first European victory, winning Brabantse Pijl with a 15km solo move, laying the foundations of a reputation of a rider who, if given an inch, could take a mile.

She has started this year as she finished the last, winning the BruggeDe Panne Classic with a 10km solo effort (see box) and revealing a decent sprint to place third at the Tour of Flanders.

Asked what the best moment of this rapid ascent is and her answer is a little surprising: “It’s the two non-wins that are more exciting for me. Liège was a huge experience all over, it was my real breakout, and one of those surreal third-person experiences – my image of it is watching myself in the third person in a way, that was really special.”

Late starter

Plenty of riders have come to the sport relatively late in life, and many of those have had success, but Brown’s rise has been remarkably quick by any measure.