Camperdown export Grace Brown clinches female cyclist of the year award at AusCycling awards

The Camperdown export was named the female road cyclist of the year after a season littered with highlights including gold in the individual time trial at the Commonwealth Games, a second-place at the world championships in Wollongong, another second-place at the Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Belgium plus a host of other winning events.

She was also runner-up at the Women's Tour in England by one second and is one of Australia's medal hopes at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

"We compete in sport and do it for the events themselves, I'm searching to be my best self and get the best results when I'm racing but come the end of year it's nice to have an award to reflect on," she told The Standard.

"It's been a pretty cool year, always proud to represent Australia over in Europe - it's not just representing my team, but flying the flag for Australia a bit so it's cool to have those achievements to my name.

"I really do feel the acknowledgement from AusCycling and the Australian fans so it's an honour to receive that."

MORE SPORT:

The 30-year-old will now turn her attention to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and make an early season statement next month after confirming her entry. She will enter the race as one of the favourites and would be the first Australian women since 2018 when Chloe Hosking won the event if she is successful.

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race is back after two years due to COVID-19 and will run from January 28-29, starting and finishing in Geelong. The main women's race is 143km.

Brown said she was pumped to get stuck into a new cycling season.

"It's always a little bit daunting the first few races of the season having some time off so at the moment I'm building up my training and getting up that level of fitness to compete," she said.

"We'll start off with the national champs in the first weekend of January and then racing in Adelaide at the Tour Down Under and then finally the Cadel Evans race. Racing is always busy in January and there's always pressure to perform in front of home crowds but it's a nice experience."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.