AS Grace Brown settles into life on Australia's only UCI World Tour team she has one goal - to keep showing her growing credentials.
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The first-year Mitchelton-SCOTT rider enters the new European season in strong form after winning the Australian time trial title in January.
She recently rode in two one-day spring classics in Belgium - the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad-vrouwen elite (36th) and Spar - Omloop van het Hageland - Tielt-Winge (34th).
But the 26-year-old Camperdown export told the team's website she still wants to show she belongs on the road with the best.
"I obviously have to prove myself more before I get opportunities to win things so I want to help the team as much as possible for the bigger goals we have throughout the year," she said.
“Looking to the year ahead, it is always quite hard to plan and set goals now because I don’t know how I will cope with all the racing and whether I will be good in the Classics to begin with."
Brown, who recently switched from British World Tour team Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling, has had a strong Australian summer since joining Mitchelton-SCOTT.
She finished 12th in the general classification Santos Women's Tour Down Under - including a victory on stage three from Nairne to Stirling in South Australia - before improving at the Herald Sun Tour to finish eighth in the overall classification.
Brown said her post-nationals form gave her extra incentive to put in the hard yards for her new team.
"I really buried myself for the team and Martin Vestby (Sport Director) and Amanda Spratt both recognised that," she said.
"I guess they were really impressed with me and what I was doing, which was cool."
The former cross-country runner said her surprise stage victory was planned to work in the favour of another teammate
"Martin sent us a video of the finish of the stage (course) from previous years and in my head I thought it looked like a really good finish for me," she said.
"In the meeting before we discussed I would be leading Gracie Elvin out but with an all-out lead-out and if she could come over me then we could get first and second.
“I was so excited that I went way too early and did like an 800-metre sprint but it paid off. I think that was more special than winning the time trial, there are more things that you need to pull off to win a road race.”
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