‘I was hanging over the barrier’ – Memories of Giro d’Italia crash take toll on Urška Žigart in opening stage of Tour de Suisse Women

Urška Žigart has undoubtedly evolved into an able challenger in the mountains, with her top ten results at the Vuelta Femenina and Giro d’Italia ample evidence, but while her climbing held her in good stead during stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse Women, the ghost of a hard-to-forget crash emerged to haunt her on the largely downhill run to the line.

It was on the final day of the Giro d’Italia Women, which delivered an unexpectedly charged GC battle after the previous day’s Queen stage was cut short, that Žigart fell while descending. She managed to get back up, remount and forge on to take 12th on the stage and eighth overall, but there was a price.

“I knew it was going to be a bit sketchy because [of the crash] in the Giro,” Žigart told Cycling Pro Net after stage 1.

“It wasn’t on TV,” she said of the Giro fall ten days ago, “but it was pretty scary. I was hanging over the barrier and, yeah, I’m still feeling a bit scared of that moment.”

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In fact, that was part of the reason the 29-year-old leapt out into the break of around a dozen riders, which formed after the Buglio in Monte climb, and then she attacked once again to slim the group down even further on the opening stage in Italy.

“It was a bit of a risky move, a bit of racing on instinct,” said Žigart. “I lost a bit of that confidence on the descent, because I worked a lot on it and I improved, but since then” – she said, referring to the Giro crash – “I’m feeling not as confident again, so we just thought ‘ok, why not go in the front and have a bit of a gap to make it through?'”

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At 27km to go, as the group headed to the top of the Triangia climb, Žigart was out front with Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-SUEZ) and the trio were stretching the gap, though as the downhill skewed run toward the line in Sondrio began the Slovenian rider drifted, first away from the leading trio and then also through the chase groups.

Žigart, who explained she wasn’t able to push it and risk making a mistake, ultimately finished 17th as she crossed the line 1:42 behind stage winner and race leader De Vries.

“Of course, it’s a shame because I felt really strong and the break made it to the finish, but we still have four interesting days to come and Kim is also feeling really good,” said Žigart of her teammate Kim Le Court-Pienaar, who has come back to racing at the Tour de Suisse after fracturing her wrist at the Tour of Flanders.

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Le Court-Pienaar caught her teammate on the road and managed to secure fourth place in the stage after sprinting from the first chase group of six, which crossed the line 38 seconds after the Visma-Lease a Bike rider claimed her first professional road victory. That group also included key pre-race favourites Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), defending champion Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM).

“It wasn’t the easiest race to come back to, but I needed a demanding day to open up the legs again. This week won’t be easy either, but I’m ready to suffer and keep on building the form,” said Le Court-Pienaar in a team release.

“Also very proud of Urška for the ride she put in today. She showed what she’s capable of and had the courage to take her chance and step outside her comfort zone.”

There will soon be plenty more chances to push those boundaries, with the five-day Tour de Suisse continuing on Thursday with a stage that has two category 3 climbs in the final 20km. The race also finishes with a testing loop centred on the Col de la Croix, with barely a metre of flat road to be seen en route to Villars-sur-Ollon as the terrain is pretty much heading up or down.