Grace Brown is having an impressive start to the 2019 season with her new Mitchelton-Scott outfit. She secured the Australian time trial title last week and went on to claim the stage 3 victory at the Women's Tour Down Under.
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The 26-year-old launched her sprint early at the end of stage 3 in Stirling, and held off the rest of the field, crossing the finish line two seconds ahead of Trek-Segafredo's Ruth Winder and Rachel Neylan (UniSA-Australia).
Teammates Gracie Elvin and Amanda Spratt finished fourth and fifth respectively, with Spratt holding her overall race lead of 49 seconds over her teammate Lucy Kennedy as the race heads into the finale stage 4 in Adelaide on Sunday.
Brown said it was the plan to have Elvin and herself go for the final of stage 3 in Stirling because the uphill drag to the line suited their characteristics as riders.
"I am pretty happy," Brown said in a team press release. "It was the team plan for me and Gracie (Elvin) to have a go at the final here and it’s really awesome after all the hard work that I get a victory myself."
The Women's Tour Down Under finishes with a closed-circuit race in Adelaide on Sunday and Spratt said she aims to win her third consecutive title, while working for Sarah Roy to win the stage.
"There's just the criterium to go but as we saw last year it doesn't always go smooth sailing, I had a crash there, so we are still going to have to be looking out for each other and hopefully it's a bunch sprit and we can support (Sarah) Roy."