"I executed that plan to perfection" - Grace Brown will end career with Olympic title after time-trial masterclass

A lot of riders fell today in the Olympic Games time-trial but not Grace Brown. The Australian specialist was not only able to keep herself on the bike in the wet Paris course, but she was also by far the strongest in the 32 kilometers that were to decide the first Olympic medal in the sport of cycling this summer.

“I had a plan to win the time trial. I executed that plan to perfection. Or even better, so the day couldn’t have gone better," Brown said in a post-race interview. “It was raining, but that didn’t affect my morale. I don’t mind rain that much. I know you have to take the bends a bit slower, ride a bit more conservatively. But everyone did that.”

It was a perfect day for Brown, who was five seconds faster than Chloé Dygert in the first intermediate point, but extended that by 10 times into the second point as the American crashed - as many others did. The 32-year old, who announced recently that she will retire from pro cycling at the end of this season, had the perfect balance of risk and control on the bike this afternoon.

Away from the corners, she put on a brilliant display of power, perhaps the best of her career, to take the victory on the day over Anna Henderson by a whopping 1:31 minutes. It is a title that marks her career and highlights an incredible season where she had already become double national champion and also winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes.