{"id":700063,"date":"2026-05-28T13:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700063\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:15:08","slug":"aussie-super-climber-to-miss-giro-ditalia-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700063\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie super climber to miss Giro d&#8217;Italia Women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/giro-donne\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Giro d&#8217;Italia Women<\/a> is about to begin, while the men\u2019s Giro d&#8217;Italia is just coming to an end. With Demi Vollering taking on Marlen Reusser, Elisa Longo Borghini and many more, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/giro-ditalia-women-2026-preview-vollering-goes-in-search-of-a-first-over-the-finestre\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">it promises to be a superb race<\/a>. One major name, however, will not be there. Last year\u2019s best climber has to miss the race.That rider was <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/sarah-gigante\">Sarah Gigante<\/a>. The Australian had plenty of talent, but injuries prevented her from truly breaking through. Then, last year, the stars finally aligned: in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/giro-donne\" title=\"Giro d&#039;Italia Women\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Giro d&#8217;Italia Women<\/a> she won stage four, then was by far the strongest again on the way to Monte Nerone. She finished third overall, and a star was born.As a dangerous outsider she went to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/tour-de-france-femmes\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tour de France Femmes<\/a>, where only Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot out-climbed her on the Col de la Madeleine. But Gigante\u2019s fear of descending has been widely discussed, and it ultimately cost her: on the final stage she was dropped and slipped off the podium, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/womens-cycling\/complete-silence-and-pure-heartbreak-sarah-gigante-stared-blankly-for-minutes-before-tears-came\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">finishing sixth overall<\/a>.Even so, the then 24-year-old pocket climber had made a huge impression. She looked like a rider to watch forever, but her dream year suddenly fell apart. During a training ride in August, she crashed heavily and <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/sarah-gigantes-brilliant-2025-brought-to-an-end-by-broken-femur-suffered-in-training-crash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">broke her femur<\/a>. Recovery from that is no quick job, and she now has to miss the Giro d&#8217;Italia Women.<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n<p>Gigante misses the GiroHer team AG Insurance &#8211; Soudal announced the new: &#8220;She will unfortunately miss this edition as she continues her recovery from a femur fracture, which still requires time and rehabilitation before a return to competition is possible,&#8221; the team said on its <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aginsurance-soudal.com\/news\/ag-insurance-soudal-to-the-giro-ditalia\">website<\/a>.<a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aginsurance-soudal.com\/news\/ag-insurance-soudal-to-the-giro-ditalia\"><\/p>\n<p>Whether she will be fit in time for the Tour de France Femmes is still unclear. AG Insurance &#8211; Soudal will have to adjust in Italy, and will rely on three names in the mountains: Ur\u0161ka \u017digart, Lore De Schepper and Mireia Benito will be responsible for the heavy lifting for the team. They will be supported by Belgian champion Justine Ghekiere. Gladys Verhulst-Wild will be the team\u2019s card for the flatter finishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giro d&#8217;Italia Women is about to begin, while the men\u2019s Giro d&#8217;Italia is just coming to an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[57488,64,63,784,340948,22240,85],"class_list":["post-700063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ag-insurance-soudal-quick-step","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-giro-ditalia-women","tag-sarah-gigante","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}