Paris ‘24: Grace Brown breaks 20-year medal drought in extraordinary road cycling effort
As others faltered on the wet Parisian roads, Grace Brown stayed upright and went on to claim gold for Australia. So how did she do it? Thanks to an extraordinary piece of coaching.
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How did a little Aussie from a country town in Victoria with a population of less than 4,000 people not only dominate the world, but annihilate them at their own game?
Australia’s new Queen of road cycling Grace Brown has lifted the lid on the intimate details and extraordinary race plan that allowed her to break a 20-year medal drought in the sport.
It included the revelation that she used her French-born coach Flavien Soenen’s in-house knowledge of the rain-soaked Paris circuit and navigation towards a historic victory via a radio attached to her ear.
The gold medal ride by Brown, who hails from small town Camperdown, almost 200km west of Melbourne, is being celebrated as Australia’s first medal in road cycling since Sara Carrigan in 2004, while she is also the first Australian woman to win gold in cycling since Anna Meares in 2012.
On the same slippery time trial course in Paris, that only an hour later fellow Aussie Lucas Plapp collided with a barricade and later required surgery on his abdomen, Brown outsmarted and outworked the rest of the world.
Brown was the second last rider onto the 32.4km time trial course.
Her pre-race strategy was to block her ears and cover her eyes, wanting no clue of the carnage that had been unfolding in the 40-minutes prior.
“It’s not helpful knowing,’’ Brown said.
“I did see when I was going to the start an image of one of my competitors getting back on her bike.
“So I knew that maybe some riders had come off, but I didn’t quite know the extent.
“It’s better not to know because you then get nervous coming into the corners. As soon as you’re not relaxed, then you’re more likely to crash because you’re just stiff on the bike and less reactive.’’
Once she hit the course, Brown, 32, who races against the majority of her Olympic rivals on a regular basis on the European Tour, remained agile and patient in the precarious conditions.
“It was rough out there,’’ Brown said.
“It’s pretty treacherous on two skinny tyres and I’m just glad that I stayed upright because a lot of my competitors didn’t fare so well.
“On Wednesday we took a look at the course and it was dry. You can go full bullet around the corners and you can trust the grip of your tyres.
“But as soon as the roads are wet, especially in a city like Paris, there’s often a bit of oil on the roads, the white (lane) lines are all really slippery, so you have to navigate your way around those dangerous sections.
“You have to make sure you’re not tipping the bike too much into the corners because as soon as your front wheel gets too much of an angle then you just slip out.
“It’s a little bit good management, a little bit good luck, but I was cautions enough going around the corners while maintaining a bit of speed.’’
The key, Brown says, was the voice through an earpiece of her coach Soenen, who also coaches her professional team FDJ Suez.
“At the first time check, he told me I was up five seconds on Chloe Dygart (2023 time trial world champion) who usually goes really hard,’’ Brown said.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever beaten her at the first time check.
“To have my coach in my ear is really helpful because in my position on the bike, I don’t have much vision of the road ahead of me.
“So I really trust what I’m hearing on my radio in my ear.
“He tells me where to be on the road, what hazards are coming up and when to prepare for a corner.
“I think he knew how many riders were crashing and he was in my ear telling me to wash off the speed (slow down) early before corners and the whole time I was thinking, it’s too early, this is slow, I need to go faster.
“But it was probably good in hindsight that he was giving me a little bit of caution.’’
Brown rode the race of her life to crush the field, winning by more than 90-seconds to her nearest rival.
The victory time in the conditions can’t be understated.
“The margin is a bit insane to be honest,’’ Brown said.
“Especially since the last two world championships I’ve come second by five and 12-seconds.
“Even the last 10km’s I was just pushing myself saying, every second counts, every second counts, don’t back off.
“Just having that in my head and my coach in my ear, to keep pushing every inch, it’s pretty crazy to win by that margin.’’
As for being crowned an Olympic champion, the modest Brown from small town Camperdown just smiled.
“It’s hard to think that people view a little old me like that,’’ Brown said.
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Originally published as Paris ‘24: Grace Brown breaks 20-year medal drought in extraordinary road cycling effort
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