Tiffany Cromwell is no stranger to juggling life as a multi-discipline cyclist and, given the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider has been splitting the season for quite some time, there have been a few lessons learned along the way.
Time away from the tarmac can reinvigorate, adding variety to what has been a long cycling career, but it can also come at a cost.
"The challenge we've had for the last few years is kind of this balance between the road and gravel program and what is actually the best way to do it," Cromwell told Cyclingnews.
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"Because I know when I go to gravel, it's just about me. I know I can be competitive, and I know I can win. So I want that.
"But then there's also still some goals on the road and certain events that I want to race, but I need to prove myself," she said, adding that this was the case on the road both within her trade team Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and the Australian national team.
Races like the Montreal Road World Championships and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, which is finishing on the familiar roads of Nice this year, are two key targets.
"I'm like, I want to be on our team, so tell me what I need to do to get onto that team while still balancing my gravel ambitions," said Cromwell of the French race, which Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto won in 2024 with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.
"So yeah, what we found is, if I have a too big a gap from road, then I lose a little bit, because everybody's still racing, racing, racing, and has the speed, and I lose the race speed if I go too long."
Still, being away from gravel too long also isn't an option she wants to run with as there are some big goals off road as well in 2026 even though the first half of the year is a little lighter on gravel
"Always it's like Classics first, get that done – it's too hard to balance gravel and road during the Classics – and then it's more of a back and forth between road and gravel," said Cromwell.
Cromwell started her gravel season in January in Australia with RADL GRVL. Among other potential gravel stops – possibly including Sea Otter Gravel in the US on April 16 – her focus will once again turn to Australia in May.
That block will include the AusCycling National Gravel Championships on May 30, where she is defending champion. Surprisingly, that's also on the same weekend as the race that dominates the global gravel scene, Unbound Gravel, but as defending national champion Cromwell is opting to take on the South Australian event, which will rule out Unbound.
"It's nice to be able to wear the stripes if I can," says Cromwell of the jersey of a national champion which she scooped up at the gravel championships in 2025 after having last claimed a national title in 2006 when she secured the U19 time trial at the Australian Road Championships.
The big driver for the trip, however, is the UCI Gravel World Series event, SEVEN on May 17, particularly as the Nannup course is expected to be similar to what will unfurl for the 2026 race for the rainbow jersey in October. "That will be good prep for the World Championships," says event ambassador Cromwell.
The home Gravel World Championships is, of course, the "big end of season goal" as there is one set of stripes that may mean even more than the green and gold ones of an Australian Champion – and that's a rainbow set.
