Everything about Grace Brown

Grace Brown is an ex-professional cyclist who has had one of the most unique careers in pro cycling. Racing for FDJ-Suez in the final season of her career, Brown was a rider that turned pro already in her late 20's but managed to evolve into a World Champion, Olympic Champion and monument winner all in the space of one year.

Name: Grace Brown
Born: 7th July 1992
Place of birth: Camperdown, Australia
Turned pro: 2018
Height: 1.68m

Brown was a very late bloomer, an unusual feat in the world of cycling, but one of the best to ever do it. After a past in running and amateur cycling, in 2018 she eventually joined a club team after proving her worth in smaller races. A 5th place at the Women's Tour Down Under got her her first pro contract in May of the same year with Wiggle High5 which she left only three months later.

However her career was launched and in 2019 she joined MItchelton-Scott (which would become a Women's World Tour team a year later) where she immediately became time-trial national champion. In 2020 she raced the Giro Donne, but then had an absolute breakthrough late in the season as she rode to fifth at the ITT World Championships, second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes and then took her first international win at De Brabantse Pijl. Brown established herself as a quality classics rider and in 2021 she continued to show her talent with a big solo win on the windy Classic Brugge-De Panne (WWT level), as well as finishing third at the Tour of Flanders and finishing in the Top10 of several other classics. Aditionally, she also won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas and was fifth at La Course by Le Tour de France and fourth at the Olympic Games time-trial.

In 2022 Brown moved to FDJ - Suez - Futuroscope and won the time-trial national championships for the second time before making the trip to Europe where she had a more modest spring. However she was still 7th in Flanders and 2nd in Liège; before winning a stage of the Women's Tour in June; winning the Commonwealth Games ITT and then also winning a stage at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta.

In 2023 the Autralian won the Australian ITT nationals for a third time and then won the WWT Women's Tour Down Under with a superb triumph in the final stage to Campbelltown on the final day. In France she won the GP du Morbihan and then the Bretagne Ladies Tour in a matter of days, before later in the year finishing second in the time-trial World Championships - but winning the TT at the Tour of Scandinavia right before ending her season.

2024 however was her true year of stardom, but coincidentally her last, as she wanted to retire on a high. And she did so in what way! A fourth Australian ITT title on her first day of the season was a good start, but then in the spring she finally managed to take that one big win that won't be forgotten, as she held on to the strongest climbers at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes and then - besides a late crash - attacked by herself to take a spectacular win in Belgium. A month later she would win the Bretagne Ladies Tour, winning the initial time-trial and the final stage.

Her preparation for the Olympic Games was perfect and in Paris she delivered the ideal performance. In a day marked by the rain, she held it upright unlike several of her riders, and culminated that with a power output that was unmatched. She became Olympic Champion with a gap superior to 1:30 minutes over her closest rivals in the space of 32 kilometers. But the story was not yet over, as in Zurich she also finally became World Champion in the discipline that marked her career the most, taking the win over a very strong Demi Vollering that almost conquered the title over the very hilly route. Brown ended her career with a triumph at the Chrono des Nations.