FDJ-Suez’s Grace Brown won Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, outkicking Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) in the sprint finish. Despite spending most of the day in the breakaway, Brown maintained her position among the elite group of six riders after surviving a late off-road incident near the finish line.
Breakaway sprint
Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) claimed third place after bridging to the break, while Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The race dynamics shifted on the final climbs, but Brown remained consistently in the front group, ultimately securing her victory in the reduced sprint finish.
“It was an amazing day. I wanted to be in that break, we always know that a strong break can go in the middle section of the race, and we worked really well together. I felt like I was on my limit on the climbs towards the end, but once I survived Roche-aux-Faucons I thought ‘it’s on’.” she said after the race.
Esta es la salvada que hizo Grace Brown a 6-7 km del final
(De NBC Sports Cycling)#LBL #LBL24 pic.twitter.com/VxKIhYQapv— elsterrato (@elsterrato) April 21, 2024
As far as the near-crash, she said she did her best to calm her nerves after the incident.
“I was a little bit stressed, of course. I locked up and almost crashed but thankfully saved it and caught back onto the group. Then I just had to try and calm myself and be patient for the final,” Brown said. “It’s been a tough spring for me. This week finally I started feeling like my old self and I said to the team that ‘I feel good for Liège’. It’s a race that I have good memories of here, so I’m really happy that we could pull it off today.”
Canadian contingent at Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Simone Boilard came in 26th, in the main group led by Marianne Vos. Magdeleine Vallieres was 34th, Clara Emond was 37th, and Olivia Baril finished 97th.
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