Aussie Focus

Gigante moves to Movistar

Sarah Gigante will ride with Movistar Team from the start of the 2022 season, departing TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank after two interrupted years with the American squad.

Sarah Gigante, TIBCO-SVB

Source: Con Chronis/AusCycling

Movistar made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon (AEST), with the 20-year-old Australian signing a three-year contract and becoming the Spanish outfit’s first signing for 2022.

"I'm incredibly excited to be joining the Movistar Team next year. The top drawcard is definitely the squad of awesome riders that I will have the privilege of calling my teammates," Gigante said.

"I am sure I will be able to learn an incredible amount from the more experienced cyclists and it will be fun to help them smash out wins while hopefully also developing my own racecraft and strength alongside the other up-and-coming riders.

"I have been a fan of Annemiek van Vleuten in particular for so many years and it feels quite surreal to think that we will be teammates very soon! I still remember lining up to get a photo with her in Belgium just two years ago."
Gigante raced during the 2020 and 2021 seasons as a member of the TIBCO-SVB squad, though wasn't always able to race to her full potential with the team.

In 2020, Gigante spent almost the entirety of the season in Australia training as best as possible under COVID-19 restrictions. 

She made the most of limited racing, winning the National Road Series as an individual before then moving onto a dominant victory at the Santos Festival of Cycling (replacing the Tour Down Under) and defending her national time trial title at the start of 2021. 

She made her way over to Europe and didn't look out of her depth in amongst WorldTour competition despite not being well-suited to the classics-style racing of the early season.

Gigante crashed badly during Fleche Wallonne, fracturing her tibia, elbow and collarbone, but was selected for the Olympics and aimed her recovery at being as strong as possible for the Olympic time trial.
She placed 11th in that event, including sitting in the lead for a while after setting the fastest time of the early departures, before setting off to continue her season in Europe.

The 20 year-old was due to compete in the Ladies Tour of Norway but was withdrawn from the race for an unspecified health reason and spent time in hospital recovering. 


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2 min read
Published 18 August 2021 6:01pm
By SBS Cycling Central
Source: SBS


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