{"id":467615,"date":"2026-05-30T11:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T11:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467615\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T11:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T11:03:08","slug":"refreshed-mentally-and-physically-womens-team-ready-to-fight-for-pink-at-the-giro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467615\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Refreshed mentally and physically\u2019 – Women’s team ready to fight for pink at the Giro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Niamh Fisher-Black discusses the team\u2019s ambitions in her first Grand Tour of the year\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just something special about doing a lap around Italy,\u201d Niamh Fisher-Black says with a smile. It\u2019s the morning before the opening stage of the Giro d\u2019Italia Women, and the Kiwi rider is ready to tackle one of her biggest goals of the season.<\/p>\n

Fisher-Black has a long, happy, love affair with the Giro. She has finished in the top-10 overall in the last four editions she started, and achieved a breakthrough stage win in 2024. That victory was one of the performances that put her on the map as one of the most exciting climbers of this generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat win was a big moment for me, and solidified the fact that I could do it. You can\u2019t describe the confidence a win like that gives you, it was a huge moment,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

In 2026, the 25-year-old is hoping she will once again taste success in Italy. After a busy block racing in the Ardennes in the first half of the season, she has been training hard at altitude and aims to come into this period of stage racing refreshed both mentally and physically.<\/p>\n

This is a big goal, to be honest. It is my first Grand Tour of the season. It’s a bit of a switch over from what I’ve been racing so far this year, so it’s a bit daunting, but I know that in the last month we’ve been putting in a lot of work, so hopefully it pays off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo: Anouk Flesch<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a small training camp with just three of us riders. Being up at altitude, it\u2019s an important time to focus and put hard work in, but it\u2019s also a nice opportunity to switch off a bit away from the racing and make some mindset changes. It was not the best start to the season for myself, but we made a switch and will head into the second part fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening stages of the Giro d\u2019Italia Women will be best suited to Lidl-Trek\u2019s sprinter, Elisa Balsamo. For Fisher-Black, it will be about staying safe and protected until the first mountain tests of the race, as well as helping her fast Italian teammate when she can.<\/p>\n

I think it’s also just as important to point out that we go for stage wins with Elisa here. It sets the other way the week goes if we can have success early. It fuels everyone and I think she is in a really good way at the moment. We all believe in her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe then have a really strong climbing squad, and that\u2019s important in the mountains. I think Bella [Holmgren] can have a strong ride. She is young, so there\u2019s also a young rider\u2019s jersey she can go for. We always aim for the GC, but I hope that we always take the opportunity for the stage wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she can use her previous experience in the Giro this week to her advantage, Fisher-Black stresses that the most important thing is staying calm and focusing on the process throughout the nine stages to come. Rather than putting pressure on specific results, she hopes that the whole Lidl-Trek squad can come away from Giro d\u2019Italia Women feeling like they have given everything in the fight for both stage victories and the elusive maglia rosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf by the end of the week the whole team is in a good place, happy and satisfied and I\u2019ve not been set back by bad moments, I\u2019ll be happy,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I look at the last few stages, they are so hard that I really don\u2019t know what can happen. It\u2019s beyond my physical understanding of what I can do. It sounds like a clich\u00e9, but I want to take every day as it comes. In the end, I hope and I believe that we can get a very good result out of this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niamh Fisher-Black discusses the team\u2019s ambitions in her first Grand Tour of the year \u201cThere\u2019s just something special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-467615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}