In March, 2017, Last took part in the eight-day Absa Cape Epic stage race for the first time and finished second with South African partner Mariske Strauss. It was Last’s first Cape Epic, which takes place in the Western Cape, South Africa, every year. The 2017 route was 651 km in total. She continued her good form later that season by taking her first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup win in Lenzerheide, Switzerland in July, becoming the first British woman to win a cross-country World Cup event since Caroline Alexander's victory in Sankt Wendel, Germany in 1997. She went on to finish second at the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns, Australia in September, becoming the first British female medallist in the elite cross-country event. Annie Last and her partner Mariske Strauss worked to stay on GC podium at the 2018 Cape Epic after Strauss fell ill before the second last stage. Last broke through Canada's hold of, and earning England's first Commonwealth Games gold medal in the women's cross country at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.