South West Scotland host the seventh 2023 UCI Gravel World Series race on Saturday, with professionals Connor Swift (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon / SRAM) dropping all challengers to cross the finish line solo, arms-up with overwhelming leads.

From a field of over 800 riders on the 113km gravel route, including 1854m of climbing, Swift finished in 3:15:34, with almost a seven minute lead over Sam Culverwell (3:22:10) and Kevin Panhuyzen (3:22:11).

“I’m pretty chuffed with that,” Swift commented. “It was my first ever gravel race, I got my bike built on Wednesday so it was my third ever ride on the bike and it was mega.”

Cromwell was no less impressive, she finished in 3:57:49, ten minutes ahead of Amelia Mitchell (4:07:35) and Svenja Betz (4:08:14). It was Cromwells’ second UCI Gravel World Series victory, coming on the heels winning SEVEN in Australia last weekend.

“Slightly surprised myself today because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and I knew there were some strong women here, Cromwell said. “But then after 20km I found myself by myself and I was like ‘okay, here we go.”

Cromwell’s boyfriend, F1 star and wannabe gravel bike racer Valteri Bottas, finished 114th in 4:01:53.

Riders finishing in the top 25% of their age/gender category qualify to participate in the October 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships taking place in Italy.

Complete The Gralloch results HERE.

Photo Credit: The Gralloch

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