‘It’s looking to be a proper battle in the first round’ – Tiffany Cromwell will be breathing down defending Life Time champion Sofía Gómez Villafañe's neck at the Sea Otter Classic

Australian Olympian Tiffany Cromwell is set to ride the upcoming Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel, the opening race of the six-round 2026 Life Time Grand Prix, which will take place on 16 April, during the legendary annual Californian bike gathering.

For the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider, it's a return to the place where she secured her first international victory, back in 2008, when she was aged 20. Cromwell successfully defended her title the following year, and pursued a successful career on road and gravel, taking stage victories at the Giro d'Italia Femminile and winning the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (in 2013). She represented Australia in road cycling at the Commonwealth Games (2014 and 2018), and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Two years ago Cromwell showed her gravel grit, recovering from a terrible start to win the 107km Gravel World Series race at Sea Otter Europe, and this year she hopes to add another win at the iconic America event. She comes into the race in great form, having won the 2025 AusCycling Gravel National Title.

The rider for Cromwell to beat is Sofía Gómez Villafañe, winner of the 2025 women's Life Time Grand Prix, who is back for her fifth series and hoping to secure her fourth successive title. And Villafañe is raring to go, having missed this year’s Cape Epic. “The field has gotten more competitive,” Villafañe recently said. “It’s looking to be a proper battle in the first round.”

Featuring competitors from 11 different countries, the starting line ups of both the men’s and the women’ races are stacked with the stars of gravel racing.

The 2026 women’s field features an impressive group of seven riders making their Grand Prix debut, including Rosa Klöser and Karolina Migoń (defending Unbound Gravel 200 champion, who also won The Traka 360 in Spain last year). Also racing is Grand Prix veteran Paige Onweller and Ruth Holcomb, who dominated the U23 competition last year.

In last year’s men’s race the imperious Keegan Swenson took out his fourth consecutive Sea Otter Classic victory, after launching a devastating attack on Lookout Ridge, but the American Specialized gravel pro suffered a broken pelvis after getting taken out by a car door during a training ride in South Africa in February.

Swenson is back in the saddle and ready to race, but he will face stiff competition from Scott rider Cameron Jones from New Zealand (winner of the 2025 Unbound Gravel race and overall series victor in last year’s Life Time Grand Prix), and Matt Beers, the South African Specialized Off-Road rider (and one time stagiaire for UAE Team Emirates-XRG) who has tasted victory everywhere from the Cape Epic and Gravel Burn to the Big Sugar Classic, Belgian Waffle Ride, and Lauf Gravel Worlds.

During the race, riders will tackle a 90-mile gravel course, doing three laps of a 29.6-mile loop, ascending 2,719ft (829 metres) each time, as they traverse the spectacular Ford Ord National Monument, for a total of 8,157 feet (2486 meters) of gritty climbing.

And this year, for the first time ever, you will be able to watch the whole Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel Race, as it's live-streamed from start to finish on YouTube. Coverage will start at 9.45am (Pacific Time), with the elite men getting underway at 10am, followed half an hour later by the women.