Despite suffering cramps Australian Tiffany Cromwell attacked the top women cyclists in the closing stages of the world road championships on Saturday en route to a top-10 finish.
Overwhelming favourite Marianne Vos from the Netherlands won gold in Italy reinforcing her status as the best rider in women's cycling.
Vos covered the 140km route into Florence in 3 hours and 44 minutes to finish 15 seconds ahead of Sweden's Emma Johansson and Italian youngster Rossella Ratto.
Cromwell, who had targeted a top-10 all season, finished ninth 1:40 behind the dominant Vos.
During the race the South Australian was twice dropped on the 4.3km climb up to Fiesole but on each lap she managed to chase back onto the lead group by descending like a daredevil into Florence.
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The 25-year-old told AAP she knew she could make up time going downhill "because a lot of girls get scared".
The last time around the 16.6km finishing circuit Cromwell herself attacked on the climb from a select group of just 11 women.
"Basically my legs were starting to cramp and I knew I didn't have much left," she said.
"We were outnumbered with the Dutch and the Italians and I thought 'Put it all out there'.
"It had slowed up, no-one was doing anything, I thought 'Give it a go and see what happens'."
Cromwell said it was better to have a dig and get dropped than get distanced after not even trying to win.
"My goal was a top-10, I achieved that and anything higher would have been incredible."
Vos was simply too good on Saturday as she secured her second world road title in a row and her third overall.
Vos also won the event at the London Olympics and has world and Olympic titles in cyclo-cross and track cycling.
Earlier in Saturday's race, Carlee Taylor sacrificed herself for Cromwell by chasing down numerous attacks from both Dutch and Italian riders.
Taylor said her job was follow dangerous moves to save Cromwell's energy for the business end of the race.
"She's an aggressive rider and we knew it was a course that was very well suited to her," said the 24 year old, who finished 25th.
"It's always good when you sacrifice yourself and the team leader has a great race."
Australia's only other finisher, Shara Gillow, ended the day 31st, almost eight minutes down.
