Stage 5 of La Vuelta Femenina was one of those telling moments in Sarah Gigante's career, a summit finish in a Grand Tour to shed light on just how she would fare among a field filled with top GC contenders, and even after a crash along the way the Australian managed to hold firm near the front to the very final stages.
The 23-year-old AG Insurance-Soudal rider has swept up a number of sought-after results on ascents and time trials in her home nation – from winning Australian titles to the Willunga stage and overall at the Santos Tour Down Under – but injury, health and circumstance have, until now, curtailed her European race calendar.
“I was really looking forward to today's race with an uphill finish, as it was the first time to test my climbing legs against the top GC riders, not just in this race, but also for the first time in my life," said Gigante in an AG Insurance-Soudal media release.
"The whole team worked really well together to help me in the first 50 kilometres, especially Ilse [Pluimers], Maud [Rijnbeek], and Anya [Louw]. They were great! Unfortunately, Anya and I crashed on the early slopes of the first climb, but luckily we could continue. I needed a bike change, but then Julie [Van de Velde] dropped back and paced me back to the group, so I was really lucky it wasn’t worse."
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Opportunity restored, Gigante worked her way back to the field on the 18.5km climb of the Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña, which is ranked category two and has an average gradient of 3%.
"The group was reduced to about a third of the original peloton on that long, but gradual climb, and split even more on the descent," said Gigante. "However, Mireia [Benito] and Julie did an excellent job of closing the gap and helping me position for the final climb."
The final climb of the 114km stage averaged 7.9% over 3.4km, ascending to the Rapatan Fort in the Pyrenean town of Jaca and the finish line of a pivotal GC stage at the eight-day Spanish Tour.
"I took the lead on the early slopes of the final climb so I could go at my own pace and have a good position," said Gigante. "I didn't have a power meter anymore because of my bike change, but I tried to set a solid, but not maximal, tempo. Eventually, the other climbers took over the pace, and I did my best to follow."
When Vollering came to the front of the lead group and started pushing the pace with around 2km to go, riders like Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Mavi Garcia (Jayco-AlUla) started to drop away but Gigante jumped across the gaps to hold on for a little longer.
She finally drifted away at 1.3km to go, the last to lose contact with the leading trio of Demi Vollering (SD Work-Protime), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).
Gigante ultimately held on for fifth place, 41 seconds behind stage winner and race leader Vollering, 13 seconds behind the second and third-placed Kastelijn and Longo Borghini and two seconds back from FDJ-Suez leader Évita Muzic.
That moved Gigante –who cut short her Movistar contract and moved to AG Insurance Soudal in 2024 – 15 spots up the overall rankings. However, that is still 16th on the GC and 3:13 back from the red jersey as Gigante was one of the many with potential for a strong overall result that was caught out in the cross-winds of stage 4.
There are still two key opportunities for the climbers and overall contenders, with a summit finish on stage 6 before a flat stage 7 and another climb to the finish as the race concludes in Madrid on Sunday.
"I'm very grateful to my teammates for their hard work, both today and all week, and I'll keep doing my best in the upcoming stages,” said Gigante.
