Grace Brown to retire at end of season

Australian cycling champion Grace Brown has announced 2024 will be her last as a professional cyclist and will retire at the end of the season.

The 31-year-old, who represents the ARA Australian Cycling Team, posted a video on social media saying she would see out the rest of the 2024 season with her UCI Women’s WorldTour team FDJ-Suez, before hanging up the bike.

“I know that I could have many more years in cycling but I really miss my life in Australia with my husband, my family, my friends and it’s something that is harder and harder to leave,” she said in the video.

“I’m really content with everything I’ve achieved, it’s far beyond what I ever expected. I’m really excited for the next chapter of my life but at the same time I’m really sad to leave this world behind.

“But it’s not over yet I still have some really big goals that I want to achieve this year. And I will continue racing with FDJ-Suez until the end of the season. So please continue your support and let’s see if I can sign off in style.”

It’s no secret that Brown harbours lofty ambitions for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games time trial, one of her aforementioned “big goals”.

The Camperdown native has established herself as one of the best individual time triallists in the world during her career.

She first started racing with the St Kilda Cycling Club after making the transition from running to cycling in 2015 due to injury.

Making her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Brown finished fourth in the time trial, which she rode with a broken shoulder.

In 2022, Brown won time trial gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and made her first UCI Road World Championships podium on home soil in Wollongong, clinching a silver medal in the time trial.

Last year, Brown came agonisingly close to winning the world championship title at Glasgow, finishing with another silver medal in the time trial, just five seconds off the winning time.

Brown etched her name in the Australian cycling history books this year, winning her fourth national time trial title - her first win was in 2019, then again in 2022 and 2023.

This year also saw Brown win her first Monument, with a thrilling victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which she had previously finished runner-up in 2020 and 2022.

Feature photo: SWPix