Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) and Matevž Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious) won Sea Otter Europe Girona on Saturday, the Spanish race through the rugged terrain Les Gavarres Massif one of the final UCI Gravel World Series events of the season to provide qualification for the Gravel World Championships on October 5-6.
The 107.2km sent off the elite men and elite women with just a one-minute separation at the start, a tough 5.4km climb lining out the fields just a few kilometres north of the start, that first peak averaging 6.3% gradient. The hardest challenge of the day came at kilometre 46 with an 8km climb at 4.2% average, taking riders across the highest point on the route, 517m above the sea.
For Cromwell, after making it through the first-half climbs, she used the rolling profile on the back half to work her way back toward a lead group. The Australian would catch German Valeria Kleiner and French gravel rider Axelle Dubau-Prévot and hold them off to win her second Gravel World Series race, last taking a solo victory at Swartberg 100 in South Africa in April. Rosa Klöser came in more than 4 minutes after Cromwell for fourth.
"The race was quite difficult. Obviously, with that climb at the start, it quickly separated the women's field. I didn't have the best start and then I just had to kind of reset myself and step by step put myself back in the race," Cromwell told race organisers at the finish.
"Then finally I started to catch the other women who were first, second and third. I think I caught Axelle with around 10k to go. Then I was like 'how do I win the race'. I just had to go full and completely empty myself. Happy I could take the win."
The 24-year-old Slovenian men's winner had expected to help Matej Mohorič, like he did last fall when Mohorič won the UCI Gravel World Championships and Govekar finished as the next best-placed teammate in 15th. This time out, Mohorič pulled out of the race after crashing in a training ride on Friday on the Girona course.
Govekar then adjusted his game plan and had free rein to go for the victory. He came into the Girona gravel race with a stage win at the Tour of Britain and just had to adjust to the off-road positioning. Seven seconds after he crossed the line, German champion Paul Voss outsprinted Czech Petr Vakoc for the final spots on the podium.
"We came here with the reigning gravel champion, Matej Mohorič; it was unfortunate he did not start today, but I was still super motivated. I knew I was in really good shape in the recent month. I was having a really fun day on the bike, really enjoying the course," Govekar said at the finish.
Complete results from UCI Gravel World Series can be found here.
