Australian Olympic champion Grace Brown has found the rainbow at the end of her glittering cycling career, racing to the road world championships individual time trial title in Zurich.
The 32-year-old, who will retire at the end of the season, becomes the first woman to achieve the Olympic-world time trial double in the same season.
Brown’s triumph set the scene for Belgian defending champion Remco Evenepoel to match her feat in the men’s time trial later on Sunday after overcoming pre-race drama.
Luckless Australian Jay Vine, who’s made such a great comeback since suffering spinal injuries at the Tour of the Basque Country, had another crash on a descent when challenging for a podium spot, but picked himself, bloodied and battered, to finish a courageous fifth behind Evenepoel.
Earlier, less than a month since she dominated at the Paris Games, the 32-year-old Brown sped to her first rainbow jersey as world champ with a sensational ride against the clock from Gossau to Zurich on the championships’ opening day.
“It honestly feels like I’m in a bit of a dream these last couple of months,” an ecstatic Brown said.
“These big goals seem ambitious, but I’ve been able to get out on the road and do it and realise those dreams. It’s really cool.”
With a superbly timed ride – fittingly, on a bike decked out with a golden finish – over the 29.9km course, Brown saved her best for last, clawing back an eight-second deficit on Dutch superstar Demi Vollering over the last 10km along the banks of Lake Zurich to be fastest by 16.79 seconds by the finish.
Brown covered the course in 39 minutes 16 seconds, with Vollering second, and American race favourite, defending champion Chloe Dygert, way back for the bronze, 56.42sec behind Brown.
The remarkable ITT double represented a dream conclusion to Brown’s career at her final world championships, after she had come so close previously, finishing runner-up in this race for the past two years.
Now world, Commonwealth and Olympic champ, Brown could still enjoy one final hurrah in next weekend’s road race.
“Definitely, the experience of the Olympics and that success on my shoulders already gave me a lot of confidence,” Brown explained, smiling when asked if her ‘golden bike’ had made all the difference.
“I was riding in the last couple of kilometres and I just kept telling myself I can be world champion. That gave me the strength to push all the way to the end.”
The first, bumpier part of the course had featured an ascent and Brown reckoned she had been delighted to reach the top six seconds faster than Vollering.
“I was glad I was ahead at the top of the climb because I sort of expected I might be a bit back there because Vollering is such a strong climber.
“Then I guess she just attacked the middle section of the race a little more than I did.
“It took me a couple of kilometres on the flat to get into the rhythm after all the climbing but I felt I gained strength towards the end.”
This marks the end to a wonderful final campaign for the rider from Camperdown, Victoria, who also took the national time trial title, as well as the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic and the Bretagne Ladies Tour in 2024.
Later, Evenepoel, the Olympic road race and time trial champ, edged out Italy’s former winner Filippo Ganna to retain his crown by just six seconds in the 46km men’s race.
It followed a pre-race nightmare for the brilliant 24-year-old, whose chain fell off his ‘golden’ bike moments before he was due to start.
“It was maybe the most difficult time trial of my life – but in the end we won,” he admitted afterwards.
Italy’s Edoardo Affini was third, the only other rider apart from Ganna within a minute of Evenepoel after Vine’s crash ended his hopes.
