Source : ABC NEWS
The path that any elite athlete travels to the top of their sport is rarely straightforward.
The most evangelical of adherents to their chosen regimens are still liable to succumb to the seemingly endless torment of injury hell.
As Australian cyclist Sarah Gigante prepares for the elite women’s road race at the UCI World Championships on Saturday night, she can be certain that she knows this as much as anyone.
Gigante had just returned home to Spain after competing in her first race since the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, a 403-day absence from the professional peloton due to a badly broken femur.
She has previously spent time off the bike to have treatment for myopericarditis, inflammation of her heart, in 2021 and surgery to correct iliac artery endofibrosis in 2024.
“It has been a really unlucky streak,” Gigante understatedly told ABC Sport.
“But on the other hand, I now know more and more how to deal with setbacks.”
Sarah Gigante has fought through numerous setbacks in her career so far. (Getty Images: Szymon Gruchalski)
Cycling is a sport that litters broken bodies and dreams throughout its history.
At Gigante’s return race, the Faun Tour Femmes, half her AG Insurance-Soudal team was eliminated by crashes, the vulnerability of riders competing at lightning speeds with minimal safety equipment laid painfully bare.
Justine Ghekiere broke her knee on stage one in a crash that also eliminated SD Worx-Protime pair Mischa Bredewold, who broke her hip, and New Zealand’s Mikayla Harvey who suffered concussion.
Then, on stage three, Urška Žigart broke her jaw.
“It was, I wouldn’t say a rude awakening to how harsh cycling can be, because I know how harsh it can be,” Gigante said.
“Definitely don’t take it for granted when you’re feeling good and you’re healthy and things go right.
“Because often they don’t.”
The power of positivity — and meme-making
Sarah Gigante who won the blue mountain classification jersey at the 2025 Giro d’Italia Women, is one of the best pure climbers in the world. (Getty Images: Luc Claessen)
Despite theoretically being the most simple of her ailments, Gigante’s latest break from riding has almost been the most difficult to wrap her head around.
Following a season in which she claimed sixth place overall at the Tour de France Femmes, backing up a third-place finish featuring two stage wins and Queen of the Mountains victory at that year’s Giro d’Italia women, Gigante crashed during a training ride.
Surgery was required to pin her broken femur before recovery could begin, but the pin proved to be too long and was improperly placed, leaving her in as much pain as she was when she first fell for months on end, until a second surgery removed the offending metalwork.
“For sure this broken femur has been the hardest, most frustrating [injury],” Gigante said.
“When you’re concussed, you don’t know how long it will take to heal, or with the iliac artery you don’t even know if it will work.
“It’s not that I’d want a broken bone, but I’d always be like, ‘oh, like give me a broken bone any day’ over that uncertainty. And the time I actually did just have a broken bone, it ended up being way worse.”
The pins in Sarah Gigante’s leg were causing her extreme pain. (Supplied: Instagram/@slipstreamsarah)
It was not just the excruciating physical pain, but the psychological burden of a seemingly endless healing process that took its toll following those career-best performances in 2025.
However, thanks to an iron-clad support network that includes her mum and teammates, combined with Gigante’s cheeky, good-humoured nature, the Australian climber took it in her stride.
She also had the most 21st century of all activities to take her mind off things — making memes.
“Actually it was really funny … It wasn’t just for Instagram, it was like a coping mechanism,” Gigante said.
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“Riding indoors all the time, it gets a bit boring, so because it was so easy I was on my phone making memes … and I really looked forward to it.
“When I had to have the second operation to get the metal out, people were like, ‘oh, I can’t wait for the memes to come back,’ but I didn’t need to make them.
“I think it took the point of me going kind of crazy to need that coping mechanism and I didn’t need it this time.
“I’m really happy that now I can say I’m back to racing, not just a professional trainer and a professional meme maker.”
Sarah Gigante was just thrilled to be back racing after 403 days out. (Getty Images: Billy Ceusters)
Gigante is fresh off signing a new contract that will keep her at AG Insurance-Soudal until the end of 2027, a testament to their continued belief in the young Aussie, even if Gigante has previously joked that following her many setbacks, she has had to be rebooted and is now a completely new version of herself.
Now, with this being her third major comeback, she’ll be happy for no more upgrades.
“After the heart, I was Sarah 2.0, and then after the iliac artery it was version 3.0, now I’m up to 4.0,” Gigante noted, counting out on her fingers as she did so.
“I’m not planning on changing again, I think Sarah 4.0 is enough. I think that will be the final update.
“Now I’m looking forward to what I can do.”
A ‘super open’ elite road race
Sarah Gigante is capable of mixing it with the very best riders in the world. (Getty Images: Tim de Waele)
Gigante is part of a four-strong Australian team that will take to the start line in Canada alongside Georgia Baker, Lauretta Hanson and Amanda Spratt.
“It’s only my my second time in the elite colours racing for Australia on the road … it’s a real privilege and I’m really grateful,” Gigante said.
“Given I only will have four UCI races this year, to have one be the world champs is incredibly special.”
That team is smaller than it might be, Australia qualified six women riders but is only sending four, a situation Gigante noted was “a bit sad” — and that quartet will be up against it in a wide open field.
Amanda Spratt will ride in her 13th and final world road race for Australia. (Getty Images: Dario Belingheri)
The women’s elite road race takes place over 180.4 kilometres in Montréal, the longest ever distance for a women’s race at a world championships, including eight laps of a gruelling, 13.4km Mont Royal Circuit which comprises the majority of the route’s 2,502 metres elevation gain.
“It is two-and-a-half thousand metres over 180K [km], but it’s also two-and-a-half thousand metres over 120 kilometres because the first 60km is dead flat,” Gigante said.
“So actually, for someone like me, that’s even better. Obviously, I’d rather it were three-and-a-half-thousand metres … but I love that the climbing is really backloaded.”
Tour de France Femmes and Giro d’Italia Women champion Demi Vollering leads a typically strong Dutch team who has plenty of backup options in its squad.
But in reality, the list of favourites could conceivably run into double figures: Belgium’s two-time road world champion Lotte Kopecky, Spain’s La Vuelta Femenina victor Paula Blasi, Italian firebrand Elisa Longo Borghini, 21-year-old Brit Zoe Bäckstedt, last year’s silver medallist Niamh Fisher-Black of New Zealand, Polish pair Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney and Dominika Włodarczyk, and Swiss duo Marlen Reusser and back-to-back Tour Down Under winner Noemi Rüegg are all contenders.
Demi Vollering is the leader of Team Netherlands, but history says that does not always mean they will all work for her. (Getty Images: Billy Ceusters)
“A course like this is super open,” Gigante said.
“Obviously I’m gunning for the Aussie team. We have a small but strong and definitely hopeful team, and I’m sure we’ll give it our best shot against the bigger favourites.
“But [AG Insurance-Soudal teammate] Kim Le Court Pienaar, I won’t be racing with her, but I’m definitely hoping she can have a really strong ride.
“I think the course suits her perfectly — I think it suits her more than it does Demi, probably.
“It’s more that Demi has six super strong teammates alongside her and it’s likely that Kim will be isolated quite early in the race.
“It is hard coming from a small nation like Mauritius, but then it also means it’s even more special if she can win.”
Kim Le Court Pienaar (left) is the pick of Sarah Gigante (right) for the upcoming world championships road race. (Getty Images: Tim de Waele)
Gigante acknowledges that she is in far from the best form of her life and is potentially more suited to what is expected to be a ferociously hilly course next year in the French Alps, but added that the women’s field is so open that anyone can claim the win.
“Every person that lines up on the start line in any bike race has a chance. It’s not just who’s the strongest and that’s really a fun part about the sport,” Gigante said.
“After the success of last year’s early breakaway with [Canadian dark horse] Magdeleine Vallieres taking an awesome win, I’m sure there’ll be a fight for the breakaway.
“But also the big teams and favourites know what not to do as well, so it [the breakaway] will likely be kept on a leash, but who’s going to walk the dog and become the leash?
“Even though the Dutch say they’re all in for Demi [Vollering], it doesn’t always go like you think it will.
“I think that’s why cycling is so exciting.”
