Cyclists descend on Dumfries and Galloway for The Gralloch

The TRK UCI Gravel World Series’ first ever visit to Britain was a huge success.

The Gralloch took place in Galloway Forest Park on Saturday with Gatehouse providing the base for the Red:On organised event.

More than 1,000 riders from more than 30 countries entered the race to tackle the challenging 113km route.

And first woman home was Australian Tiffany Cromwell, with England’s Connor Swift first man.

The women’s race began first and a pack of seven emerged at the front, including Canyon//SRAM rider Cromwell.

She followed Nikki Brammeier of Muddita on one of the descents but when the former British cyclocross champ punctured, she was left on her own.

As she tackled the final climb, Cromwell was caught by Swift – whose race had started 40 minutes after the women – but he overtook her on the final climb.

Cromwell was first woman, with Amelia Mitchell second and Svenja Betz of Maxx-Solar Rose Women taking third in a three woman sprint to the line.

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

“This was after I got dropped on the first climb because whenever it’s a hard start it never favours me because I take a little bit of time to warm up, but I knew I was better on the downhills and I was able to catch back on the first downhill, and it was Nikki Brammeier going hard on the downhills, which I enjoyed, and then it was me Nikki and Heidi (Franz).

“I knew on the downhill I was always going to make time and on the flat section its was just a case of keeping the power on the pedals. I focussed on my fuelling and got into a really good