'I proved last year I could beat them' – Gravel World Championships gives Tiffany Cromwell her rainbow jersey shot

So often when Tiffany Cromwell lines up on the road with Canyon-SRAM it is in support of others but on Saturday at the UCI Gravel World Championships, she is one of the key riders who contenders will be looking to as a clear and present danger.

The Australian is one of those rare competitors in the pack that has a foot in both camps at a race that may be called a gravel championship but also has much in common with a road Classic. As has been the pattern in the recent UCI incarnation of the rainbow jersey race for gravel, the event draws a powerful list of WorldTour road riders to line up alongside the year-round gravel devotees. 

Few, however, are as practised at crossing the discipline divide as Cromwell, with the WorldTour rider’s palmares top-heavy with gravel podiums and victories. So while Cromwell may have been a last-minute pick for a support role when she lined up for Australia at the Road World Championships in Zurich, delivering a DNF after laying it all out on the line early to make sure her teammates went into the final stages in the best position possible, this Saturday it is Cromwell that is the rider who will be looked toward to finish it off.

“For me, it's a chance to target the rainbow jersey,” Cromwell told Cyclingnews ahead of the World Championships. “But the other thing with the worlds is it’s always tricky because it's not like any other gravel race,” said Cromwell. ”All the roadies decide to turn up, which is good and bad.

“It's nice that we have the big names and that puts it on the map, but then, you know when you got some of the best riders in the world turning up … but then I proved last year I could beat them, so it's definitely a goal for sure. I'd love to bring home the rainbow jersey.” 

That occasion Cromwell is referring to, where she beat them, is the European Gravel Championships run in the same area and on a similar course as the 134km women’s elite Gravel World Championships race from Halle to Leuven. Then she came across the line in front of the Dutch SD-Worx sprint powerhouse Lorena Wiebes and cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel.

The 36-year-old Australian is heading into the race with the confidence boost of a tenacious win at one of the final Gravel World Series rounds, Sea Otter Girona, having blasted through the field to victory even though it looked like her chances were gone after she fell behind in the climb heavy opening stages. 

Cromwell has also always been up near the leaders in the two editions of the Gravel World Championships so far – with a sixth and tenth place finish – though this time with a course that plays into her hands the hope is that the race will, too.

“The course is very Classics-like, so it will be quite road-centric this year, I think,” said Cromwell. “It's a very fast course, but a bit of everything – you have rough cobbles, you have fast gravel, you have urban sections – so I'm looking forward to it, because it suits me better than last year but at the same time, I know it's going to be tricky.”

Tricky for a number of reasons. For a start, the Classics style course will also suit a number of other riders, Belgian dual road world champion Lotte Kopecky being just one example, and also opens the prospect that the road style team tactics will come into play, rather than the more individually-based racing that is usually seen in gravel.

That will mean if it comes down to working as a nation the Dutch, just like they always are on the road, will be at a distinct advantage given that they’ll be lining up with a host of potential winners, from Wiebes and Van Empel to Marianne Vos and Puck Pieterse. If it comes down to trade team affiliations then SD Worx-Protime is in the box seat, with Wiebes, SD Worx-Protime gravel specialist Geerike Schreurs and Kopecky among those from the squad expected to be on the start line.

The Australian team has some strong riders from across gravel and road alongside Cromwell, from national gravel champion Courtney Sherwell to Neve Bradbury, Sarah Gigante and Nicole Frain but no team can boast anything like the collective strength of the Dutch riders. 

Still, in particular having Australian Canyon-SRAM teammate Bradbury, who has just won silver in the U23 category at the Road World Championships, is a welcome bonus for Cromwell this year, with the usual road pattern bound to be flipped so the helper is instead helped.

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