Road National Championships: Grace Brown aims for three straight wins
Grace Brown will be hunting a third straight Road National time trial championship in Ballarat later this week. But it might only just be the start of the biggest year of her career.
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Grace Brown hopes another statement ride in the Road National Championships time trial can put her one step closer to Olympic glory later this year.
The 31-year-old will start as favourite in the event, which will be held around Federation University in Mount Helen, near the major city of Ballarat.
And her favouritism is justified after a stunning 2023.
Last year, Brown won her second straight time trial national championship before claiming the Tour Down Under in the same month.
The FDJ – Suez rider then finished second at the World Championships in the time trial.
She’s now Australia’s leading rider but knows the challengers are coming to take her crown.
“It’s always a big way to start the year, coming to Ballarat and straight back into hard racing,” Brown said.
“It’s also a difficult one as it is the first race of the year, you are not sure where you are at compared to everyone else.
“I’ve got quite a bit of strong competition there.
“My goal is to try to win the time trial for another time but my year still doesn’t necessarily rely on my winning it.”
Brown will have to fend off the likes of two-time time trial national champion Sarah Gigante and Amanda Spratt.
Rising stars Isabelle Carnes and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, who won last year’s junior events, are others to keep an eye on.
Brown is likely to be one of Australia’s representatives at the Olympics later this year given her form in the last 12 months.
But a win would make her the nation’s best chance of gold in Paris.
“In terms of qualifying, I’ve qualified and it looks likely I’ll be on the team but in cycling lots of things can go wrong so it’s often best not to count the chickens before they hatch,” she said.
“The national championship time trial is not a selection event but the more time trials I can perform in the better.
“I tend to have goals throughout the year to have one thing to focus on at a time and motivate myself in training.
“The Olympics is number one after the last two years.
“It will be a big year.”
Brown heads into the time trial with limited preparation after dealing with niggling injuries.
She’s fine to compete but admits starting the road nationals with a time trial isn’t ideal.
The cyclist would have preferred to get kilometres in her legs from the road race before tackling the time trial.
Last year’s event had the road race first before the time trial with the order reversed this year.
The road race will be held on Sunday.
“When you have a road race before it is a nice warm up for the time trial,” she said.
“But the training doesn’t change that much.
“I’d prefer to have it the other way round.”
If Brown wins she can put herself into the record books as one of Australia’s finest female time trialists.
A win would put her second all-time, with four wins, and make her the fourth Australian cyclist to win three in a row.
The women’s elite race will be held on Thursday.
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Originally published as Road National Championships: Grace Brown aims for three straight wins
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