UCI World Championships: Grace Brown beats Demi Vollering to elite women's time trial title

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Grace Brown (Australia) added the elite women's world time trial title to her Olympic time trial win, rounding out her career with a rare double victory after completing the 29.9km course in a time of 39:16.

The 32-year-old, who is set to retire after next week's road race, was locked in battle with Demi Vollering (Netherlands) throughout the race.

She led at the first checkpoint by six seconds, fell behind by nine at the second, and then staged a remarkable turnaround on the run to the finish to beat Vollering by 17 seconds and become the first Australian to win the elite women's time trial.

Behind the gold and silver duo, there was an intriguing battle for bronze, too, as Chloe Dygert (USA) ultimately prevailed over Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) with a time of 40:12 to secure the final medal position by nine seconds.

Niedermaier doesn't walk away empty-handed, however, with the 21-year-old walking away with the title of U23 women's world time trial champion.

"Honestly it feels like I'm in a dream these last couple of months. These big goals that seem ambitious but I've been able to get out on the road and realise those dreams so it's been cool," Brown said after the race.

"The experience of the Olympics and having that success on my shoulders already gave me a lot of confidence. As I was riding in the last kilometres I just kept telling myself 'I can be world champion' and that gave me the strength to push all the way to the end.

"I was pleased that I was ahead at the top of the climb. I expected that I might be behind there because Vollering is such a strong climber. She just attacked the middle section of the race a bit more than I did and it took me a few kilometres on the flat to get into the rhythm after the climbing. I felt like I gained time towards the end.

"It was a very different approach to the Olympics. I was very focussed and went over my plan a thousand times and had every detail dialled. I was a bit more relaxed coming into this. I didn't have the same time to prepare. I think that just having the confidence and knowing that I've executed many time trials well, I could still be confident in my preparation and know that I could do my best over this course as well.

"I'm still finishing up at the end of this season and I just feel really, really lucky to have the end of my career like this. It's special."

How it unfolded

The first elite event of the 2024 UCI Road World Championships would be the elite women's time trial, coming on Sunday morning on a 29.9km course from Gossau to Zurich.

324 metres of climbing filled the route, with all of the challenges of the day coming in the mid-section of the race, centred around the first checkpoint after 10.5km. Several kilometres of descending and rolling roads would follow, before a flat final 12km run, which included the second and final intermediate checkpoint at Seestrasse.

Of course, all of the top favourites for the rainbow jersey were listed towards the end of the running order, so the early runners from smaller nations could do battle for the hot seat and enjoy representing their countries on the biggest stage.

Eyeru Tesfoam Gebru of the Refugee Cycling Team set the early running with a time of 47:21 at the finish, though the Ethiopian's time in the hot seat would be a short one as a succession of riders hit the top of the timing sheets.

Fernanda Yapura (Argentina) put 2:27 into Gebru before Paula Blasi (Spain) came through to cut another two seconds off with a time of 44:51. Her time was in turn bettered by Eugenia Bujak (Slovenia), the 13th rider of 70 to start, who became the first woman to average over 40kph, and indeed over 41kph, to go almost two minutes quicker again, ending her run at 43:07.

The times would carry on dropping, however, as Teniel Campbell's (Trinidad & Tobago) new quickest time of 42:45 was bettered by Emily Ehrlich's (USA) 42:38, Mie Bjørndal Ottestad's (Norway) 42:02, Yuliia Biriukova's (Ukraine) 42:20, and Brodie Chapman's (Australia) 41:43.

After Chapman, 29 riders were left to run, including the top favourites for the rainbow jersey and former world champion Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) and defending champion Chloe Dygert (USA), who were at that point completing their final preparations before getting underway.

To the surprise of few, it was Van Dijk, the world champion in 2021 and 2022, who was next to top the standings. Her time of 41:03 stood a full 40 seconds quicker than anyone else to that point and a benchmark for the other medal contenders to beat.

Back down the course, though, Van Dijk's first checkpoint time of 17 minutes was being beaten handily by several others, with Antonia Niedermaier (Germany), Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Grace Brown (Australia) passing through with times of 16:50, 16:27 and 16:21, while Dygert also edged ahead with a time of 16:57.

Elsewhere, Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Anna Henderson (Great Britain) posted first checkpoint times of 17:17 meaning they'd have work to do to make up ground and get into contention for the medals.

At the second checkpoint, the same names once again got the better of Van Dijk's 29:43. Niedermaier's 29:22, Vollering's 28:37, Brown's 28:46, and Dygert's 29:29 making clear that the battles for gold (Vollering vs Brown) and bronze (Niedermaier vs Dygert) were set. In the battle for the big prize, Vollering had sped through the mid-section of the race, turning a six-second deficit to Brown into a nine-second advantage.

At the finish, it was Niedermaier who set the time to beat at 40:21, 42 seconds up on Van Dijk and 34 up on Kopecky, who finished shortly after the German.

When Vollering came to the finish, she was well clear, finishing her ride with a time of 39:33 and setting up a tense finale as Brown raced into Zürich. Having led at the second checkpoint, Vollering was the favourite to hang on and win her first-ever rainbow jersey, but it was Brown who had more left in the tank on the flat run to the line.

The Australian did more than enough to turn around her deficit and come away with her first rainbow jersey at her final Road World Championships. The last woman home, Dygert, rode a similarly fast run to the finish, overturning her own deficit to Niedermaier to grab bronze.

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