Grace Brown wins Brabantse Pijl Dames 2020

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Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) stormed to the line to take victory in Brabantse Pijl Dames with a long-range attack on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old Australian, who left it too late in Liège-Bastogne-Liège before finishing second, made no mistake this time around, attacking with 17km remaining and winning solo. Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij mounted a late chase but the Sunweb pair were unable to eat into Brown's advantage and were forced to settle for second and third, respectively. Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal Ladies) won the reduced bunch sprint for fourth.

“It is pretty exciting to cross the line first for my first time in Europe. I took confidence from Sunday into today’s race and I think that really helped me. I have made a bit of a jump in this last week which is really cool," Brown said.

“On that final lap I just saw an opportunity when girls where attacking and there was a bit of confusion and I just decided to attack and go for it."

After a number of early attacks, the race burst into life when Margarita Victoria Garcia Cañellas (Ale' BTC Ljubljana) and Katia Ragusa (Astana Women's Team) broke free with just under 50km remaining over the demanding course. The pair established a small lead as they approached the Hagaard climb with 42km to go but strong work from Sunweb and Trek ensured that they were caught with 39 remaining as Sunweb looked to break the peloton to pieces on the cobbled climbs that littered the route.

Sunweb once more accelerated on the next climb of the Holstheide but it was US national road champion Ruth Winder  (Trek-Segafredo) who put in the most powerful move, just as the climb peaked out. The American was unable to create a significant gap but her efforts reduced the bunch to less than 25 riders before Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) put in a huge attack just after with 29km to go.

Stephens quickly established a lead of over 30 seconds, and she briefly had Mitchelton-Scott and Trek-Segafredo scrambling for allies as the lead continued to grow. Even when the peloton had Stephens in their sights she kept her lead at just a few seconds as she used her time trial skills to good effect on the few flatter sections of the race. However when the peloton finally had the American within touching distance Brown put in a significant attack that burnt off the rest of the field and quickly saw her latch onto Stephens.

The Tibco rider made a mistake coming to a tight right-hand corner just as Brown made contact, and subsequently lost all of her momentum as the road began to once more climb. Brown charged up the climb with 17km to go, leaving a struggling Stephens in her wake as she quickly established her winning lead. With 14km remaining, and Stephens back in the peloton, Brown had 23 seconds over the chasers but there was still enough firepower to mount a recovery with Sunweb well represented. 

"When I got across to Stephens it was on a cobbled section and she tried to ride the gutter and then was struggling to come across to me and completely lost momentum, so I decided to just go," Brown said.

On the Moskesstraatt the lead leveled out at 25 seconds with Lippert attacking and going clear. She was unable to cut down Brown's advantage however, and when Mackaij broke free of the next group on the road Lippert eased off and waited for her teammate. 

Despite the assistance, the Sunweb pair were unable to match Brown's pace with the Australian able to take the biggest European win of her career.

"Into the final, I heard that the Sunweb riders were trying to come across and I was getting time gaps and it was sort of the opposite of Sunday in Liège," Brown said.

"The time was coming down and I was pretty on the limit but once we hit the headwind it started to go out again, so I felt pretty confident then with just a few kilometres left to finish.”