Cromwell and Johnston win RADL GRVL
Tiffany Cromwell and Brendan Johnston win Australia's 100K RADL GRVL race
The 2025 gravel racing season is alive and well in the Southern Hemisphere. RADL GRVL took place in Southern Australis this past weekend, run in tandem with the WorldTour Tour Down Under stage races.
Tiffany Cromwell bested the rest of the women’s field despite having a busy week as event promotor and Tour Down Under racer. The finale came down to the final kilometres with the Aussie out powering American Melisa Rollins.
“Stoked and slightly surprised to have managed to pull off the pro women’s win at @radlgrvl today after a pretty busy and tiring week, and also struggling on the opening climb,” Cromwell said. “Must’ve been the special custom @canyon bike giving me some extra power. 😉
I really enjoyed racing head to head with the other pro women thanks to our separate start. We raced hard and created a really fun and dynamic race from start to finish.
After spending half the race chasing in the second group to get back to the front of the race. I then found myself in a front group of 4 riders that became 3 and then finally 2 for the last 25km or so.
In the final I battled it out against @melisa_rollins who was having a really strong race and putting in lots of attacks. We worked well together and then played the tactical sprint game in the final km’s. Luckily my road racing experience helped me a little bit at the very end to get the upper hand.
It was a great race and big congrats to Melisa on second and to @samarasheppard on 3rd who was in the front group for a lot of the day and also had a strong ride.”
In the men’s race, Australian Gravel National Champion Brendan Johnston broke away with 20 kilometres to go and managed to stay away from last year’s winner Tasman Nankervis.
“Special early season victory @radlgrvl,” Johnston said. “I was really surprised with the sensations I felt in the race and was able to race freely and aggressively all day going clear in the final 20km and time trialing to the finish while being hunted by @tasman_nan and @markobrien1987.”
American Hannah Shell rolled in for 8th place in the women’s field to open her 2025 season.
“8th place in pro women @radlgrvl 🤩 It might seem silly to be stoked about an 8th place finish, but in the greater context of the last two years, today was really meaningful.
My mantra lately — the most ruthless thing you can do as a competitor is continue to believe in yourself.
I made it up the steep climb at the start in the same group with some legends. I didn’t last very long but it’s a good sign of what might be in store for the rest of the year.
After I dropped off, I was grateful to ride the rest of the day with @ella.bloor. Very proud of both of us for this performance.”
Haley Smith finished 10th, noting that RADL was “possibly the best gravel course I’ve ever ridden - actually made me think I like the racing part of this discipline!”
Smith raced after a three week training block in Australia along with her partner and fellow Canadian Andrew L’Esperance.
“Coming off 3 weeks of big training I wasn’t sure how the body would respond to 3 hours of throttle down racing,” L’Esperance said. “The beauty of racing this time of year is that it gives you a little progress check, see how the engine is going, and see what needs work. With plenty of Aussie’s bringing their A game, I got pushed to the limit and gathered some great insights. In the end I finished up 5th with lots of time rolling at the front with a good crew.”
It won’t be long until the North American season kicks off. Looking for a race to follow or enter? Find my list of upcoming events here:
Early season gravel races to watch
It’s hard to know when the cycling season starts and ends. A variety of disciplines and countless races means riders can find a race to do every weekend, if they wanted to. As far as the gravel season goes, races really start to dot the calendar in March, but I still consider this to be early season.