Australia are aiming for double gold as the women's and men's Road Races get under way on the penultimate day of action at Birmingham 2022 in Warwick.

Newly-crowned Commonwealth champion Grace Brown, who stormed to victory in Thursday's time trial, is favourite to win the women's 112km race, which begins at 8am on Sunday.

The 30-year-old said: "The aim is double gold. We have got a talented team and a few different options.

We'll just have to play our cards where they land. If it's smart for me to attack, then I will
Grace Brown

"We can aim for the sprint but there are also some girls that can attack and go for a solo win.

"It's not a course that has a deciding point in it. It will really depend on how aggressively it's raced and what the intent of other teams is.

"We'll just have to play our cards where they land. If it's smart for me to attack, then I will."

England will look to Anna Henderson and Abi Smith after their recent strong form.

Henderson was only 33 seconds behind Brown in the time trial, having come into the Games on the back of a superb Tour de France Femmes.

The route could also play more to the strengths of Elynor Backstedt, the 20-year-old Welshwoman who is back on track after a couple of years of injury setbacks.

Australia's Rohan Dennis is also hoping he can add to his time trial gold in the men's competition, which gets under way at 12.30pm.

The 32-year-old, who is competing at his third Games, knows Australia have a tough battle against the Isle of Man's Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas of Wales as their teams also bid for glory.

But the British duo can expect support in hunting down any attacks from Australia, who will be looking to set up Caleb Ewan for a sprint finish.

"The morale and confidence is there, but it also puts a little bit of pressure on," said Dennis. "We can't race stupidly. 

"It's obvious we're one of the strongest teams, there are going to be lots of eyes on us, so we have to be quite smart.

"Being the strongest doesn't always mean you win."

Thomas expects the road race to be a “war of attrition” as rival teams work together to ensure there is no sprint for Cavendish.

Reigning British champion Cavendish has a strong Isle of Man team aiming to see that the 160km race around Warwick and Leamington Spa ends in a sprint that he would be the runaway favourite to win.

Though the flat profile of the route might point to a bunch finish, rival teams plan to mix things up to deny Cavendish his chance.

“Cavendish has obviously got a strong team around him and it’s a good course for him,” Welshman Thomas said.

“But I think for us, the English, South Africa and the Scots, I don’t think any of them want a sprint so I think it’s going to be like a Nationals race, lots of aggressive racing, a war of attrition.

“That’s the race we want and that’s the race we’re expecting.”

Cavendish's squad includes former British champion Ben Swift, Mark Christian and Matt Bostock – who needed hospital treatment after being involved in Matt Walls’ horror velodrome crash last week, but who has been seen training since.

If they cannot make it a sprint, the 37-year-old Cavendish has shown he can mix it in breakaways too, winning his second British title in June by being in a lead group for the entire day.