In Sunday's elite women's road race at the 2020 Australian Road Championships in Buninyong, Mitchelton Scott put her rivals on the defensive by setting up an early breakaway, and Grace Brown, eventual winner Amanda Spratt, and Justine Barrow (Roxalt Attacker) were unable to hold off the chase.

"We wanted to race hard and put pressure on them early on," explained Mitchelton-Scott sport director Martin Vestby on the team website after the race. 'We tried to surprise at least some of the riders.'

"When they started to panic at the back, it wasn't organized.

"They might have thought Lucy [Kennedy] was going to take the lead for us," Vestby continued.

For Brown, who won the silver medal in Wednesday's elite women's time trial, she gave it her all throughout the race.

"I was going to ride pretty hard on the third lap. But Spratty was behind me and said, 'That's it, Grace, you've got it.' Then Justin bridged the gap and we were in a really good position."

"I worked pretty hard in that group to keep extending my lead.

"I had an image in my head of Michael Freiberg," Brown admitted, recalling the 2019 men's road race winner who caught the lead duo late in last year's race before attacking and winning the title, and thinking of the moment she was dropped.

"I kept pushing after the last two climbs, but when I reached the banner with 1km to go, I knew it was too late for me," she said, settling for the bronze medal.

Spratt, the new road race champion, attributed the win to her team, especially Brown.

"Grace's attack on the climb was part of the plan to open the race early. She was so strong that I was the only one able to keep up with Justin before he caught up."

"I don't know if anyone "allowed" us to get away so early, but nobody expected us to get away so fast. We had a really good group and Justin's great run helped us do that."

"Grace did really well. It was unusual for her to come here as the sole leader of the team." Spratt said, revealing what the team's plan was from the beginning." So I was under a lot of pressure.