Grace Brown forced to abandon brand-new gold bike in Tour de France time trial

Olympic cycling champion Grace Brown was forced to abandon her appropriate gold-coloured bike at the Tour de France after the celebration fell flat in the third stage.

The 32-year-old won Australia’s first gold medal in Paris with a stunning performance in the time trial on the opening day of competition.

Back in the saddle in the Netherlands for the start of the week-long Tour de France, all eyes were on Brown when the third stage — the 6.3km individual time trial — got underway.

Not only a leading contender to take out the stage victory, Brown was flying on the custom-designed bike emblazoned with ‘Golden Grace’ and a gold helmet to match.

But a puncture meant she had to step off the gold bike and jump back on her regular Australian TT championship machine, while it also killed any hope of a win.

Brown, whose parents are on hand for what will be her last Tour de France before retiring this year, said she felt ready for a good time trial until her “golden opportunity” came to an end.

“I was quite disappointed,” she said.

“I had a rear puncture, my tyre got sliced somehow and I had to swap bikes. Lost a lot of time swapping bikes and finished nowhere near the fastest riders.

“That was pretty disappointing but that’s bike racing, I guess, and yeah. Hopefully that’s the last of my bad luck for this Tour de France and I have some good days. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.”

Brown finished 30th, an eventual 24 seconds behind stage winner Demi Vollering, to sit 31st in the standings by the same margin.

Vollering, the defending Tour de France champion, also took the overall leader’s yellow jersey from fellow Dutch rider Charlotte Kool.

She leads the overall standings by three seconds from teammate Lorena Wiebes with American Chloe Dygert in third.

Dygert, who won bronze behind Brown in the Olympic individual time trial and gold on the track in the team pursuit, finished second in the time trial behind Vollering.

The time trial followed the 69.7km second stage earlier on Tuesday.

Kool passed Olympic road race silver medallist Marianne Vos then overtook Wiebes just before the finish line for a stage win in 1:32.49.

Vos held third with almost all the peleton given the same time, including Brown, who recovered from an incident when she was taken out by a falling rider.

“Dreams seem to come true quite fast these days,” said Kool, who also won the opening stage in The Hague on Monday.

“First yesterday with the win and then to do it again with the team today in the yellow jersey, it is just incredible.”

On Wednesday the eight-stage race leaves the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg and heads south into Belgium, finishing in Liege.

It then winds through eastern France to finish on Sunday at the top of the punishing climb of the Alpe d’Huez’s famous 21 hairpin bends.

- with AAP