Mitchelton-Scott’s Grace Brown wins Brabantse Pijl Dames

Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) soloed to victory at Brabantse Pijl Dames on Wednesday.

Just days after her second-place finish at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Australian showed she is in peak form for the October classics.

“It is pretty exciting to cross the line first for my first time in Europe,” Brown said. “I took confidence from Sunday into today’s race and I think that really helped me. I have made a bit of a jump in this last week which is really cool.”

Brown had great support from her Mitchelton-Scott team who showed aggressive riding from the gun. Even through a relentless procession of climbs, the peloton mostly remained as one large group until an attack by Mavi Garcia (Ale’ BTC Ljubljana) and Katia Ragusa (Astana Women’s Team) called everyone to attention. With just under 50km remaining, the pair established a small lead as they approached the Hagaard climb.

Within a few kilometers, the two riders were caught as strong moves from Team Sunweb and Trek-Segafredo initiated a series of attacks. American champion Ruth Winder’s attempt to create a gap finally reduced the bunch to 25 riders, and with 29 km to go her compatriot Lauren Stephens (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) attacked away solo.

Stephens quickly established a lead of over 30 seconds. Over the following climbs, Brown tried to force the peloton to chase but had to wait until the American was within reach to launch her race-winning move.

“On that final lap, I just saw an opportunity when girls where attacking and there was a bit of confusion and I just decided to attack and go for it,” Brown said. “When I got across to Stephens it was on a cobbled section and she tried to ride the gutter and then was struggling to come across to me and completely lost momentum, so I decided to just go.”

With 17km to go, Brown rocketed up the climb as Stephens fell back into the peloton. Team Sunweb’s Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij mounted a late chase but the pair was unable to cut into Brown’s 23-second advantage and finished second and third, respectively. Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal Ladies) won the reduced bunch sprint for fourth.