Lack of ‘punch’ costs Brown in Olympic road race
Grace Brown’s challenges in the Olympic road race only underscore the extent of Remco Evenepoel outrageous cycling talent.
Brown and Australian teammates Lauretta Hanson and Ruby Roseman-Gannon were in the right places at the right time on Sunday in the 158km women’s event.
But when the decisive break went clear inside the last 50km, Brown lacked the punch to go with the leaders.
That was a day after Evenepoel blew his rivals away to win the men’s road race. Not even a flat tyre and a frantic bike change near the finish could stop the Belgian.
On day one in Paris, Brown and Evenepoel won the road time trials and the Belgian is the first man to do the road double at the Games.
Brown is no road racing slouch, earlier this year winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic, and she was a contender on Sunday.
But Dutch great Leontien van Moorsel (nee Zijlaard) is the only woman to win the two road events at an Olympics. Clearly, it is a brute of a challenge.
“We did everything we planned to do. But when we entered Montmartre for the first time … I didn’t have the legs to follow the attack,” Brown said.
“You have to race with the legs you’ve got and my training was really focused on the time trial, which was quite specific. There were a few things missing to be up there today.”
To use a non-technical term, Brown lacked oomph.
“The ideal scenario would have been having better legs today. The way the race was – on a good day, it would have suited me,” she said.
“But I don’t quite have the punch at the moment. so I need to find that again.”
Brown added she recovered well from the time trial and added there were no excuses.
She finished 23rd, one behind compatriot Lauretta Hanson, and Ruby Roseman-Gannon was 39th.
“Every time up Montmartre, you could hardly hear yourself think. The crowds were phenomenal,” Hanson said of the key climb on the Paris finishing circuit.
“We came to race … and gave it a good crack.”
Brown, from Melbourne, will retire from road racing at the end of the season.
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