It wasn't the fairytale winning ending for Tiffany Cromwell as she took on her last race at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, but one thing that's certain is that it wasn't for lack of trying.
The Australian rider has won at the SEVEN Gravel World Series race held in the same location three times, and she was going to make the most of that home advantage to time her moves.
"When you know it's your last one, the head space was good. I knew I just had nothing to lose," Cromwell told Cyclingnews after crossing her final finish line.
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The outcome was eighth as she took on her fifth and final Gravel Worlds, but she carved out a spectacular path along the way. The first key selection, as expected, was made on Brockman and Cromwell became part of the chase group, which through the next section just kept chipping away at the gap. Cromwell finally closed the last bit and rather than sitting in, decided she may as well just keep on going.
"In gravel, I've always been good at just getting in my rhythm, and I think just the dynamic at the front – nobody really wants to show their cards too quickly – it seemed to play into my favour."
Initially it looked like Cromwell's move would be short-lived, with Marianne Vos (Netherlands) among those to go out in pursuit, but then her rivals started looking at each other and the gap stretched, sitting at over a minute at 70km to go in the 125.6km race with 3,179m of elevation gain.
"It was obviously early on but It was like 'OK, you know, why not try something, get a head start," she said, who knew that she "always suffered" on the Ellis climb ahead.
"Getting that far and having the head start was perfect because then it put me really back in the game.
"I knew I couldn't match the girls on the climb, so I just had to take a chance, and I think it was just one of those days, you're just not thinking, you're not doubting yourself."
So even though she was caught, dropped and then clawed her way back again once more it was Cromwell who was charging into the brutal climb of Folly with just under 30km to go, delivering an excited roar and chatter from among the waiting crowd who hadn't been expecting her to be on the charge, or perhaps even in the lead group, once again.
"I was like, 'I'm cooked, I could sit here, get dropped in a few k or attack," she said. "And the way gravel works, a lot of individual riders against each other, nobody wants to necessarily chase straight away, so again, it just gave me another head start for Folly. But then I was like, done, done."
Though she still held on for a finish within the top ten, even sprinting to the line against Elisa Serné (Netherlands) to make sure she got eight and not ninth.
"I wanted to come here, race my bike, give everything I had, and just be at the finish having no regrets," concluded Cromwell as she did her final round of post-race media interviews to conclude a career spanning 17 seasons, and with a bank of many successes – which now includes her second UCI Gravel World Championships top 10.
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