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Grace Brown will go for gold on Sunday 4th August when she represents Australia in the women's road race cycling at the Olympics.
The 32-year-old leads a team featuring Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Lauretta Hanson and they will tackle a 158km route featuring 1,700m of climbing.
Starting at the Cote des Gardes and finishing on the Pont d'Lena in front of Place du Trocadero, the picturesque surroundings mask an arduous parcours featuring two laps of 18.4km, including the Côte de la butte Montmartre, before a closing dash down into the centre of town.
Brown, a two-time World TT silver medallist, offers Australia real hope of a podium, or perhaps even better. She first goes against the clock on Saturday 27th July in the Time Trial, before aiming to improve on her 47th in the road race in Tokyo.
Grace Brown the in-form rider
There are plenty of reasons for 41.00 Brown to feel better about her hopes than her odds suggest after a stellar season for FDJ-Suez, including winning April's Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Her year started with TT gold at January's national championships, before taking fourth on the road and a solid spring campaign culminated in that victory in Liege.
She was sixth in the TT at Vuelta Espana Feminina, before winning against the clock at the Bretagne Ladies Tour.
A second in the opening TT at the Giro d'Italia Women will have added to her confidence, but it is her victory in Liege that really stands out, with that undulating course featuring sections similar to the one in Paris.
Australian road race champion Roseman-Gannon and nationals runner-up Hanson will provide fabulous support, especially having demonstrated their ability to measure their effort in races featuring loops by recording strong results in lap races already in 2024.
Lotte Kopecky the rider to beat
For all of the optimism surrounding Brown and her team, the classy field means she will have to be on an excellent day, with Belgium's Lotte Kopecky the rider to beat at just 2.75.
The reigning world road race champion finished fourth in Tokyo and has only improved since.
Her 2023 world title came in a year that also featured wins in the Tour of Flanders and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
She also won both the road and TT jerseys at the nationals and has continued into this year, defending both in June before finishing second at the Giro after a brilliant spring that saw her take out both Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.
Kopecky's price and pedigree suggest it is her race to lose, but write off 5.00 Marianne Vos - who is still going strong at 37 - at your peril, with her having won the Amstel Gold and the overall at the Volta a Catalunya.
Although she struggled to just 47th at the Dutch nationals, the Cannibal will be determined to prove she can still eat up the competition in what could prove her final Games.
Dutch strength in depth
Vos is part of an incredibly strong four-rider team for the Dutch. Ellen van Dijk is likely to carry the bottles at 81.00, but Lorena Wiebes and Demi Vollering both have genuine medal hopes.
Wiebes is 6.00 and was second to Vos in Amstel, part of a strong spring that included five one-day wins, while fellow 6.00 hope Vollering has been the GC star of the year, winning in Suisse, Burgos, Itzulia Women and most impressively, the Vuelta.
The Netherlands' issues may come in-race when their directors have to decide who attacks for the win.
Italy also have strong claims, with Giro champion Elisa Longo Borghini 9.00 for gold after taking bronze in Tokyo, while 2021 world champion Elisa Balsamo will hope to be refreshed after dropping out of the Giro and she is 12.00.
Kopecky is the rider to beat, but the Dutch depth makes it an open race and one that Brown and co may see as an opportunity to go under the radar before launching late attacks that could allow the 32-year-old to use her time trial skills to potentially solo to glory.
