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

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New Mitchelton-Scott signing Grace Brown won the elite women's Australian national time trial title in convincing fashion in Buninyong, Victoria, on Tuesday, beating teammate Gracie Elvin by more than a minute-and-a-half, with Specialized Women's Racing's Kate Perry in third, another 11 seconds back.

Brown – the current Oceania time trial champion – was the third-to-last rider to start, and was able to eclipse the performances of Elvin, who sat at the top of the leaderboard for just a few minutes, and then caught Perry, who had started a minute ahead of her.

Having set the best time, Brown only had to wait for first Shara Gillow (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) and then her own Mitchelton teammate Lucy Kennedy – the last rider off – to finish before being able to celebrate victory.

Sunday's elite women's road race champion Sarah Gigante (Roxsolt Attaquer), meanwhile, finished seventh on the 29.5km course to win the under-23 title.

"I knew that I could do a good time, and I thought I had a chance of winning, but I knew that [teammates] Lucy and Gracie are also going well, so I didn't think I had it in the bag, and I certainly didn't think I could win by that much," Brown said after the finish.

"Three weeks ago I did a race-pace recon here on the course, and I was going a lot faster than last year, so I knew what I had to do and what plan I needed to follow, but I ended up smashing that time.

"It's pretty unbelievable. It hasn't sunk it yet that I've taken the jersey and will wear it around Europe. I'm happy that after the little bit of disappointment of Sunday and not taking the jersey in the road race that I could take the jersey for the team in the time trial," she said.

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