Brown on a winning roll with Mitchelton-Scott

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A delighted Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) after winning stage 3 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) signs on in Nairne ahead of stage 3 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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Eventual winner Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) in the peloton during stage 3 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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Race leader Amanda Spratt congratulates teammate Grace Brown after winning stage 3 of the 2019 Women's Tour Down Under (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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Mitchelton-Scott's Grace Brown puts her head down as she goes for the win on stage 3 of the 2019 Women's Tour Down Under in Stirling (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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.

Brown victorious in elite women's Australian time trial national championships

Spratt takes step towards third Women's Tour Down Under title

Grace Brown takes stage 3 of the Women's Tour Down Under

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."

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Kirsten Frattini

Kirsten Frattini is an honours graduate of Kinesiology and Health Science from York University in Toronto, Canada. She has been involved in bike racing from the grassroots level to professional cycling's WorldTour. She has worked in both print and digital publishing, and started with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. Moving into a Production Editor's role in 2014, she produces and publishes international race coverage for all cycling disciplines, edits news and writes features. Currently the Women's Editor at Cyclingnews, Kirsten coordinates global coverage of races, news, features and podcasts about women's professional cycling.