Grace Brown's victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège marked two historical moments in cycling. She brought FDJ-SUEZ its first Monument win since its inception in 2006 and became the first woman from Australia to win one of cycling's Monuments.
Brown now joins the prestigious list of Monument winners from Australia which includes Stuart O'Grady (Paris-Roubaix 2007), Mathew Hayman (Paris-Roubaix 2016), Matthew Goss (Milan-San Remo 2011) and Simon Gerrans (Milan-San Remo 2012 and Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2014).
Of the five Monuments the women's peloton competes at three. RCS Sports' Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia do not offer women's races to run alongside the men's events but the Women's WorldTour includes the Flanders' Classics Tour of Flanders as well as ASO's Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"The team is super excited. This is our first Monument win. It's a bit of a history marker in the team. I'm super happy that I could do it," Brown said, eyes welling with tears of joy at the finish line in an interview on Cycling Pro Net.
Brown joined the FDJ-SUEZ team in 2022 to help with its ambitions to build across the Spring Classics and Grand Tours. She often places season targets on the Ardennes Classics and has finished on the podium in two previous editions, 2020 and 2022, at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"I think this is now officially my favourite race of the year. It has been special, having two second places here, and I always dreamt that I could win it if I came in with the front group," Brown said.
Brown has been one of Australia's top performers in professional cycling, with victories at the Tour Down Under and Brugge-De Panne, stages at the Women's Tour, Vuelta a Burgos, Challenge by la Vuelta, and Tour of Scandinavia as well as podium finishes at the Road World Championships.
She won the individual time trial at Australia's National Championships for a fourth time in January but, until her win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, hasn't been able to perform at her best through the early part of the season.
"It's unbelievable because I didn't have the best spring. This week, I started feeling really good. It came just in time to finish these Classics. I'm really happy," Brown said.
Brown showed remarkable strength during the women's 153km race, forming part of the day's main breakaway of eight that formed after the Côte de Stockeu, which was chasing her compatriot Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), who had punched ahead of the race.
Once they caught Gigante, Brown split off the front of the small lead group with Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) and Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale), but they were later joined by Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime).
"It's always a gamble when you go early, and you are in the break for a long time. You never feel fresh coming into the final, but it was just enough to make it over Roche-aux-Faucons and be there in the front group. I'm happy that it all worked out," Brown said of her effort.
Her race almost came to an abrupt end at 6.8km to go when she entered a roundabout a little too quickly and had to hit the brakes to avoid going down. She and New Zealand's Cadzow were forced off-road and had to cut across the grass along the side of the road to jump back on the tarmac, providing a tense finale.
"Just before the final descent, I looked up a bit on the corner and didn't quite make it around. It was kind of stressful trying to catch back up to the bunch. I'm glad I didn't crash, but in the end, it was OK," she said.
The riders from Australia and New Zealand rejoined the leaders for a tactical finale. Niewiadoma attacked early but then faded as Longo Borghini launched. Brown timed her sprint perfectly and came around the Italian Champion to take the victory, while Vollering finished in third place.
"There were a lot of attacks in the final. I followed some, but you also have to gamble a little bit," she said. "For some reason, I have slow-mo patience in a sprint final like that. I waited and came with speed, and it was enough to win the race. It's pretty cool."
