Grace Brown finishes 47th in Tokyo Olympics women's road race

Brown, who will ride in the time-trial on Wednesday, finished 47th in an attacking race in hot conditions.

The riders started the race on Sunday in hot weather with temperatures hovering around the early 30s and humidity hitting about 45 per cent for a majority of it.

A 67-rider peloton that took to the start line at Musashinonomori Park to ride the 137km to the finish at the Fuji International Speedway.

The women's course included climbs over Donushi Road and the Kagosaka Pass. There was 2,692 metres of climbing for the peloton before they finished at the speedway.

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Austria's Anna Kiesenhofer, who was part of the initial breakaway group that attacked at kilometre zero, held off a fast-finishing chase group to claim the gold medal in a start-to-finish victory.

Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten claimed silver with Italian Longo Borghini crossing the line to collect bronze.

Kiesenhofer, who crossed the line in three hours, 52 minutes and 45 seconds, set up the victory when she attacked her fellow breakaway companions with 42km to go.

Road captain Tiffany Cromwell was the best placed Australian, crossing the line in 26^th. Young gun Sarah Gigante was next to finish in 40^th. Pre-race chance Amanda Spratt did not finish.

Kiesenhofer, Poland's Anna Plichta, South Africa's Carla Oberholzer, Namibia's Vera Looser, Israel's Omer Shapira jumped away from the peloton the moment the flag went down.

Looser and Oberholzer were both dropped leaving three riders in the break, who would stretch the gap out to over 10 minutes, with 88 kilometres to go.

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Kiesenhofer attacked Shapira and Plichta with 42 to go and rode to the finish to claim gold.

The Australians kept themselves at the front of the peloton in the early stages of the race but when the heat was turned up in the chase by the powerhouse Dutch team, the quartet in green and gold couldn't stay with them.

Demi Vollering launched first, followed by American Leah Thomas before defending champion Anna van der Breggen attacked.

Grace Brown worked hard to bring her back but the effort saw her drop off the back of the peloton after van Vleuten attacked again.

Spratt was dropped just before Brown. Cromwell and Gigante followed soon after.

They re-joined the group later but as the pace picked up again Brown was unable to go with them and finished in one of the last groups over the line.

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