Hill of a climb for Gigante
Sarah Gigante, the “Queen of Willunga Hill”, is returning to defend her crown when the Tour Down Under’s women’s race tackles the iconic climb for the first time ever.
She also might be about to return to the form that made her one of the most promising riders in world cycling after the past three years that nobody could have predicted when she burst onto the scene.
For a while Gigante’s career seemed to be on a trajectory just like how she climbed, at a rapid ascent.
At 18 and just graduated from high school, the Victorian produced one of the most famous rides in Australian national championships’ history when she won the women’s road title in 2019 and then backed it up with consecutive wins in the time-trial in 2020 and 2021.
In 2021 at the Festival of Cycling held in place of the TDU she became the queen of Willunga Hill as she took the win by more than a minute, with her time up the climb still the fastest by a female.
“It brings back some amazing memories from 2021, my mum and I drove over from Ballarat … and I made us have a detour by Willunga so we could ride up it on the way and it looked as beautiful as it did before,” she said.
Gigante, now 23, is hoping a return to Willunga Hill on Sunday in the final stage of the 2024 women’s TDU will demonstrate that she is back on track after three tough years.
There’s been crashes, injuries, a diagnosis of myopericarditis in 2021 and an ultimately ill-fated move to Movistar.
From being one of the most promising talents in the sport, Gigante hasn’t raced more than 20 days in a year since 2019 and spent 2022 and 2023 primarily in Australia.
Now at AG Insurance-Soudal after parting ways with Movistar, Gigante is hopeful a corner has been turned as she returns to Adelaide.
“It has definitely been a challenging couple of years since I last came to Adelaide and … we raced up Willunga,” she said.
“I definitely didn’t expect the three years that came next, but I have learnt just how much I love cycling and I would do whatever it takes to come back and how resilient I am.
“I am always very determined but I am more determined than ever to show that I am back.”
If the recent national titles in Ballarat are anything to go by, then this might be the case.
Gigante lit up the road race with her consistent attacking – although she eventually finished 11th.
“It felt so good, even though I didn’t get a result on Sunday, I thought I would be disappointed with anything less than gold but I came 11th and was super happy.”