Ever since the possibility of a Tour de France Femmes was mooted, it is a race Sarah Gigante has been excited to line up at and though she didn't make it to the first two editions, the third has seen the rider finally get her chance.
The Australian who has all the ingredients of a potential future GC contender is lining up with AG Insurance-Soudal. The team was set to have a strong overall option in 2023's sixth-placed finisher Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, while learning the ropes was Gigante's task. The South African, however, is absent to give her fractured vertebrae a bit more recovery time, but that hasn't changed Gigante's focus.
"Our DS Jolien [D'hoore] said that Ashleigh is impossible to replace, it's sad she's not here, but she is impossible to replace, super strong, great and experienced. And so instead of putting more pressure on myself and Kim [Le Court] we will stick to the plan, go in with an open mind and have fun, gain experience and take the opportunities where we can," Gigante said in the Netherlands before the racing began.
Where those opportunities lie for Gigante is clear, given her climbing prowess, which at the start of the season saw her land stage victory at the top of Willunga Hill and also the overall win at the women's Santos Tour Down Under.
"The last two stages in particular and especially Alpe d'Huez, that would be surreal," said Gigante when asked about her focus for the race.
The rider who built her early racing skills at the Brunswick Cycling Club had been hoping for a high mountain test of her climbing legs earlier this season at La Vuelta Femenina, but had a crash just as the climbing began, though even then she still managed a fifth on the first uphill finish and to complete the eight-stage tour within the top 20.
"At the Vuelta, I was disappointed," said Gigante. "I didn't crash out of the race but I crashed before we got to the mountains. I hurt my ribs."
That has made her ever more conscious of the need to tread carefully in the opening nervous days within the peloton.
"I want to get through these first few stages safely and hopefully without time loss," said Gigante before the stage. "Mainly, so that I can be helpful to the team and then contest the last two stages."
She finished stage 1 from Rotterdam to The Hague just off the back of the bunch, losing 20 seconds, and is now set to tackle Tuesday's double stage day, with another flat sprint-oriented effort and 6.3km time trial, and then it is on to lumpier terrain until the race hits the mountains for the final two telling days.
Stage 7 has five categorised climbs across 166.4km, finishing on Le Grand-Bornand and then stage 8 has three across the 150km course, but two of those are brutal HC ones that fall in the final half. They are the Col du Glandon with its 19.7km at 7.2% and then the stage and tour finishes at the top of the iconic Alpe d'Huez, 13.8km at 8.1%.
Of course, a strong finish on that climb is bound to be the dream scenario for Gigante. She didn't recon the stage in person but remembers "pain and hairpins" from when she came second on the virtual version of the slopes – beaten by Moolman Pasio – in the July 2020 Zwift substitute for the COVID-19 delayed real-world Tour de France.
Still no matter what happens on the 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d'Huez, Gigante can count 2024 a success. The rider, who spent the last two seasons with Movistar before an early swap to AG Insurance-Soudal at the start of this season, has hit her stride after a challenging run of illness, injury and circumstance-interrupted seasons.
Not only did she take her first WorldTour overall race and stage victory at the start of 2024, but the 23-year-old has also managed to get deeper into the season than ever before and gather solid race experience in Europe that should help her development for the years ahead, which now looks likely to include plenty more summit finishes and Grand Tours.
"I've had a fabulous year, beyond all my dreams, I just love it," said Gigante. "I'm happy because all the riders are lovely and the staff are incredible. I have so many opportunities.
"They are patient with me and I'm having a blast."
