Canyon-SRAM, third in the UCI world rankings, brings a roster loaded with climbers, including young stars Neve Bradbury and Antonia Niedermaier, for the Giro d’Italia Women, July 7-14.
Two Giro veterans lead the GC hopes - Elise Chabbey, who returns for a fifth time, and Italian Soraya Paladin, who makes an 11th appearance to her home Grand Tour. Chabbey comes off a Tour de Suisse mountains classification win, while Paladin finished in the top 10 at both the RideLondon Classique and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas.
“It's always a super nice tour with different kinds of stages and many opportunities. We come there with Neve and Antonia, two young, talented climbers, and I'm excited to support them during the tour,” Chabbey said.
Also on the start line are Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka, Alice Towers and Maike van der Duin, who all make their debuts at the Giro.
Not on the roster is last year’s Giro runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma, who won the mountains classification a few days ago at the Thüringen Ladies Tour. Last week, she inked a new contract with Canyon-SRAM to extend her time at the WorldTour level through 2026, a total of nine years with the team. She was now taking a short rest before a training camp before the Paris Olympic Games, where she will compete for Team Poland in the road race, then be part of Canyon-SRAM for Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
“Especially at the Tour de Suisse, we showed that we were a united group riding strongly together,” said Bradbury, who finished second on GC at this year’s Swiss stage race while Niedermaier was sixth and Chabbey 14th.
“The Giro is my biggest target of the season. All my preparations have been for the Giro, and I’ve done all I can to be in the best shape for this race. We’ve shown we can fight against all teams and are ready for this Grand Tour.”
After the opening individual time trial in Brescia to open the eight days of racing, Van der Duin will put her sprint skills to the test on stage 2, where the first bunch sprint is expected on the circuit finish in Volta Mantovana. The next three days cover undulating terrain for a score of opportunities, including another bunch sprint on stage 5.
However, the final weekend offers pure climbing days in the mountains of Umbria. The queen stage is stage 7, with 3,700 metres of elevation gain and two ascents of Passo Lanciano followed by a summit finish of Blockhaus. The ultimate test of the week will be a first-category climb at Castel del Monte on the final stage between Pescara and L'Aquila.
“Blockhaus is critical, but there are a lot of stages that will play a role in GC,” Bradbury observed.
“It won’t all be left to stage seven. Stage four has a challenging end with sharp, steep hills; stage six is also interesting. Blockhaus will be just hard, and it will depend on who has the legs on the day. Stage eight is hilly, and everyone’s fatigue will be high. It makes for an exciting Giro, and I can’t wait to start.”
Bradbury displayed impressive climbing abilities at the Tour de Suisse last month, earning her first World Tour win at stage 3 before securing second in the GC. Niedermaier, a Giro d’Italia stage winner in 2023 at the age of 20, showed her climbing strengths with two top 10s at La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour and her top 10 on GC at Tour de Suisse.
The young climbing duo gives Canyon-SRAM many options for the general classification, as well as the youth classification. Chabbey said that stage 3 presented an opportunity for them to shake up the GC before the weekend. That 111km stage is largely flat from Sabbioneta to Toano, and brings the first mountaintop finish of the race, a 10km climb of La Collina.
“I think stages two and five will be for the sprinters, stages three, seven and eight will determine the GC, and stages four and six can be more open. Those are the ones I’m the most excited about to grab my opportunities in some breakaways.”
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