Just as Sara Carrigan's win heralded a gold rush in Athens, Grace Brown has given Australian cycling's Paris Olympics campaign the ideal start.
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Brown dominated the women's road time trial through the heart of Paris on day one to win the first Australian gold medal at these Games.
There are signs of a resurgence among the Australian cyclists at the Olympics after the many frustrations of the last two Games campaigns.
"It's an absolute buzz ... it's huge. Obviously you hope to not have any bad luck but to start off in this fashion is just a massive boost for everyone," said men's road race team captain Simon Clarke.
"It just proves you can be an Australian and you can win gold medals. That's all we're here to do and Grace proved it."
Australia's Rio cyclists suffered training crashes and yielded no gold medals.
In Tokyo, Alex Porter's high-speed face plant when his handlebar snapped off in team pursuit qualifying set a terrible tone for the track squad.
Australia won only one bronze on the track, its worst performance at an Olympic velodrome since 1980.
Logan Martin was Australia's star performer on a bike in 2020, with an imperious gold medal in BMX freestyle, while Rohan Dennis took bronze in the road time trial.
The past two campaigns are a far cry from Athens, when Carrigan's road race win was the first of six golds - easily the best haul for Australian cycling at an Olympics.
Clarke said Brown's triumph in Paris gave him goosebumps.
She won by a whopping one minute 31 seconds after several of her key rivals crashed in the sodden conditions.
"That's pure class. When you have tricky conditions like this, the class bike riders stand out with bike-handling skills," he said.
"There are a lot of other things that come into it other than just power numbers.
"Grace really showed the class she has. I'm so happy for her."
Brown can now prepare for the August 4 women's road race with minimal pressure.
She will be one of the riders to watch, showing her strong road form with a big win earlier this year at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic.
"I will be able to just really race a bit more relaxed, take it in my stride, and see what opportunities I can take," she said.
"I have one gold medal and that's pretty good."
The one setback on Saturday was Luke Plapp's crash in the men's time trial and he did not finish.
He was taken to hospital for tests and is in a stable condition, according to the Australian team.
Bec Henderson, one of only three Australian women cyclists to compete at four Olympics, will compete on Sunday in the mountain bike race.
Australian Associated Press
