The amazing Grace Brown farewell tour has hit another highlight with the cycling great helping Australia snatch gold in the mixed team time trial at the world championships in Switzerland.
Brown and Brodie Chapman, riding the second leg of the relay event, held on during the final sprint to pip Germany by less than a second after 53.7km of racing that included nearly 1,000m of climbing.
It was the second gold of the meet for Brown, who won the women’s individual time trial on Saturday – her third title in two months having also claimed individual time trial gold at the Paris Olympics.
It was also provided golden compensation for Jay Vine, who crashed when set for a podium position in the elite men’s time trial on Sunday, ultimately coming in battered, bloodied and fifth.
Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor and Ruby Roseman-Gannon made up Australia’s six-strong team.
Matthews was also in the saddle when Australia won bronze at Wollongong in 2022, Australia’s only previous medal in the event, which was being staged for the fifth time.
“I think I’m feeling a little bit greedy, I need a few more rainbow jerseys in my closet but this one is really nice, a great vibe to do it with the whole Aussie crew. Really exciting,” said Brown.
The 32-year-old insists she won’t change her mind about retiring from cycling, despite her form, which means she has one race left in her career, Saturday’s women’s road race.
Switzerland, as hosts and back-to-back holders, were pre-event contenders but were never in the running and it came down to a contest between Germany, Italy and the Aussies.
Germany, who went out 16th of the 20 teams, upped the pace and set a new mark at the men-to-women changeover. Australia went next and their men, after initially slipping behind on the hilly section despite Vine dragging them up, hit the pedals on the flat with Matthews forcing the pace to establish a 21-second lead at the changeover.
Australia’s women also found the climb hard going with Roseman-Gannon dropped and the advantage had been trimmed to five seconds at the intermediate stage. But Brown and Chapman sprinted for the line to remain 0.85 seconds ahead with an overall time of one hour, 12 minutes, 52.8 seconds.
“We were down to two riders. I knew if I went at my maximum, Grace could stay with me,” said Chapman. “We know each other’s efforts, and she is the best in the world. In the last kilometres I was digging deep to stay with her.”
But Italy, France and Switzerland were still to finish and it had already become clear Italy were a threat.
As their men gave way to the women they were just seven seconds behind Australia’s time and at the mid-point that was down to two seconds. Italy, however, were unable to match Brown and Chapman’s finishing burst and ultimately finished eight seconds adrift to take bronze.
“It was a hard day, not much recovery out there and we really had to stick together as a team,” said Matthews.
“We came through with the fastest time and we were quite confident from there, we knew we had a strong women’s team.
“But you never know until you cross the finish line. We are in a bit of shock right now but once it sinks in we are world champions we can really enjoy it.”
