The Australian Women’s Road Race team fears no one as they prepare to take on the world’s best peloton in Paris, according to freshly-crowned Olympic Time Trial champion Grace Brown.
Grace lines-up alongside Lauretta Hanson and Ruby Roseman-Gannon for the 158km epic which starts and finishes by the Eiffel Tower.
Having won gold on the opening day of the Games, Grace has had time to celebrate and re-focus ahead of her next event.
“I’m feeling good, obviously we’ve had some success already so on a bit of a high still and I think we are going into this race relaxed and excited to put our best foot forward,” she said.
“I had two nights of pretty bad sleep but now it’s calmed down, it was good to have a week between the two events. So back down to earth and ready to hit it with some teammates this time.”
Grace expects several of the European teams to pose the biggest threat to the podium including Belgium’s world champion Lotte Kopecky, but says the Aussies are capable of a medal.
“I don’t think we fear any team, we are quite confident in our own abilities,” she said.
“The Dutch are a powerhouse team and probably favourites along with Belgium and the Italians are always a very united team that comes out strong.
“We are a team that has a real mix of skills and the combined strength and we can back each other and trust each other, so we’re looking forward to how we can race together.”
Similar to the Men’s Road Race, the course concludes with three laps of an 18.4km loop in the north and east of Paris, and includes three ascents of Montmarte Hill where the final summit is 9.5km from the finish line.
The Women’s Road Race begins at 10pm AEST.
Reece Homfray
