Retiring but not riding away – Grace Brown keeps cycling centre stage while settling back to life in Australia

Cadel Evans and Grace Brown out on the course of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

This is the time of year when Grace Brown would normally be starting her rebuild, working back to fitness for that Australian block of racing in January where the national titles are decided and home crowds get a chance to cheer roadside. But this time things are very different.

Retirement from professional cycling after a dream year – the 32-year-old became an Olympic gold medallist, claimed the individual time trial World Championships and a monument too at Liège-Bastogne-Liège – means that routine is broken.