Source : ABC NEWS
Australia’s best hope of overall glory at the Giro d’Italia Women, Sarah Gigante, will miss this year’s edition of the race as she continues her recovery from injury.
Gigante won two stages and the queen of the mountains jersey on her way to third place overall in a breakout display on the race in 2025.
The 25-year-old had been named to lead the AG Insurance-Soudal squad this year and had been reconnoitring the route in March in expectation of racing.
However, the fractured leg she suffered in a training crash in August, ending her 2025 season prematurely, is still not healed sufficiently for her to take to the start line on Saturday.
“[Gigante] will unfortunately miss this year’s edition [of the Giro] as she continues her recovery from a femur fracture, which still requires time and rehabilitation before a return to competition is possible,” her team said in a statement confirming her absence.
Sarah Gigante was the queen of the mountains on the 2025 Giro d’Italia. (Getty Images: Luc Claessen)
This is just the latest setback Gigante has been forced to overcome, with the young Australian suffering a seemingly relentless, horror run of incidents that have repeatedly stymied one of the brightest pure climbing talents in women’s pro cycling.
Gigante has had lengthy absences from the peloton for injuries, illness and, most seriously, surgery for iliac artery endofibrosis in 2024.
That has led to a serious truncation of Gigante’s opportunities at the elite level so far in her career — including at last year’s mountainous world championships in Rwanda, on a course that would have suited her to a tee.
It is not clear when Gigante will make her full return to racing, although the Victorian rider will likely target a shot at the Tour de France Femmes in August.
Sarah Gigante (right) was mixing it with the peloton’s biggest names on last year’s Tour de France Femmes. (Getty Images: Tim de Waele)
At last year’s TDF Femmes, Gigante finished sixth overall and was the only rider seemingly capable of matching eventual winner Pauline Ferrand Prévot for climbing speed, finishing second behind the Frenchwoman on the Queen stage up the Col de la Madeleine.
AG Insurance-Soudal will instead be led by Slovenian rider Urška Žigart in what is promising to be one of the toughest Giros in history.
Featuring nine stages of racing, totalling 1,179.7km across northern Italy, riders will tackle ascents of the Dolomites and Alps, including the legendary mountain pass of the Colle delle Finestre on stage 8.
With such a heavy climbing route, Gigante was odds on to repeat her excellent 2025 showing despite the descending woes that cost her a better finishing position at the Tour de France Femmes.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ), Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and two-time defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) head the list of favourites for overall honours, although New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) will be targeting a podium place and is a dark horse for overall victory.
Australian rider Amanda Spratt will be one of Fisher-Black’s key lieutenants on the Lidl-Trek squad, and is one of just three Aussies who will take to the start line in Cesenatico on Italy’s east coast.
Georgia Baker (LIV AlUla Jayco) and Kat Nicholson (Mendelspeck E-Work) are the other two Australian riders in the peloton.
The Giro women gets underway on Saturday, May 30 with a flat, 139km opening stage from Cesenatico to Ravenna that will likely see a sprinter take the first pink jersey of this year’s race.
Jai Hindley remains fourth as men’s race reaches conclusion
Jai Hindley tested the legs of his rivals on stage 18, but the biggest tests will come on Friday and Saturday night. (Getty Images: Tim de Waele)
In the men’s race, Australian Jai Hindley remains within touching distance of the podium places, sitting in fourth place overall after stage 18 finished in a bunch sprint.
Hindley is 5 minutes behind race leader Jonas Vingegaard, but just 53 seconds behind second-placed Felix Gall and 33 seconds behind third-placed Thymen Arensman with two brutal mountain days in the Dolomites to come before the processional final stage in Rome on Sunday.
Michael Storer sits seventh overall, 7:14 off the race lead, with Ben O’Connor 9:20 behind in 10th.
On stage 18, Paul Magnier completed a hat-trick of victories on this year’s race, comfortably powering away to claim a bunch sprint.
Friday’s 19th stage features 5,000 metres of climbing across its 151km route from Feltre to Alleghe (Piani di Pezzè).
