Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes winner Grace Brown to retire at the end of 2024 - "I’m really content with everything that I’ve achieved"

Grace Brown will retire from cycling at the end of this season. The Australian rider has experienced a successful final career on the road, and revealed in the news in a video message shared this Friday afternoon.

“I’ve decided that this year will be my last year in professional cycling. It’s been something that I have thought about for a while now and I feel finally confident to tell everyone," Brown shared in a video message. "I know that I could have many more years in cycling but I really miss my life in Australia with my husband, my family and my friends and it is something that is harder and harder to leave."

As an Australian native, it is not always easy to manage family life with the necessary travel around the world and mostly European calendar. Despite this obstacle, Brown has managed to have one of the most successful careers in modern cycling, winning the Tour Down Under in 2023, Classic Brugge-De Panne in 2021, Brabantse Pijl in 2020, twice runner-up and the time-trial World Championships in 2022 and 2023 and lastly this spring... Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes.

"I’m really content with everything that I’ve achieved, it's far beyond what I ever expected," the reigning Australian time-trial champion stated. "I am really excited for the next chapter of my life but at the same time I am really sad to leave this world behind."

"I want to say a really big thank you to everyone that has followed me on my journey, that has supported me and that has believed in me," she concluded, teasing however a season finale where she carries big goals:

"But it's not over yet. I still have some really big goals that I want to achieve this year and I will continue racing with FDJ-Suez until the end of the season... Let’s see if I can sign off in style.”