Sixth months into her comeback season in the pro ranks, Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) is lining up for her first Giro d’Italia Women in three years with boosted confidence, a refreshed mindset, and form that looks promising for some good results in Italy.
After starting her season early in Australia, Edwards packed in a busy spring schedule but has just returned from a two-month block at home in the United States, which saw her recover and regroup ahead of the second part of the season.
She couldn’t have opened up this next block much better, winning the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour, which concluded on Sunday, after being in the winning breakaway on stage 1 and taking the lead with a strong time trial on stage 5. Her first win since returning from hiatus, in a competitive stage race no less, the victory in Germany meant a lot to Edwards.
“It's starting to sink in,” she told Cyclingnews from Annecy, where she is enjoying a few days of rest before the Giro. “I'm feeling good, just really excited and trying to maintain any confidence boost as I go into the next week. It will be a really hard Giro, I think, so any little confidence will be nice to have.”
“It was about just having enough time to take enough recovery, take some time off, and then really build back up,” she said.
“In the spring, if something goes wrong, you don't really feel like you have enough time to take a week off and really just recover, because there's another race in three days or there's always something else coming. Once you get on the back foot, it's easier to keep getting shoved down again because you're trying to catch up constantly and it's really impossible. These last two months gave me that period to take a deep breath and really recover before I started to train, and then because I was properly recovered, I could train really hard again."
Special Giro memories
Having skipped La Vuelta Femenina in order to recover, the Giro will mark Edwards’ first ‘Grand Tour’ of the year, and it’s a fitting place to return.
“The Giro was one of the first races that I did in 2013 with a full team, we came with the national team when Mara Abbott won in 2013 and I was part of that. Ever since then I've just really loved it because those girls that year taught me how to be a teammate and how to race a bike. It was such a memorable race for me, so ever since my very first edition it's been pretty special.”
As well as that first edition, Edwards has enjoyed considerable success at the Giro, winning three TTTs and a stage of her own in 2018, and spending spells in the leader’s jersey.
“I've been able to wear the jersey a couple of other times since then, and it's always super cool to wear the leader's jersey in a big tour like that,” she reflected.
“We have to admit that along with the physical, there's a huge emotional and mental part of this sport, and I think you have to be motivated. I'm a bit of a romantic, so there's definitely extra mental motivation that comes for this race.”
Opportunities on a varied route
It may be a somewhat sentimental return for Edwards, but it’s not all about the romanticism. Her victory in Thüringen has proved she’s riding well, and she is eyeing some serious opportunities for results next week.
“The Giro is looking super challenging, especially those last couple of days. I wouldn't say I've magically turned into a teeny tiny mountain climber like a Sarah Gigante or riders of that style, but I'm pretty happy with how my climbing was going at Thüringen, so I'm hoping that I can be up there,” she said of her goals going into next week
“Leading up to [the final weekend] I think it does actually suit me quite well, so I'm pretty excited, I think I have some good form. I hope I can be up there in the mix and get the best result possible for myself and the team.”
That result could come as early as stage 1, with the opening time trial catching Edwards’ eye, and even offering the opportunity for the 30-year-old to challenge for the first pink jersey.
“The 15km TT is really exciting to me,” she said. “I've been trying to get a little bit better at my TTs, and then at nationals, I was just three seconds off the podium, and then just two seconds off the podium in Thuringen, so I've really, in a very short period of time of working on my TT, been improving. Fifteen kilometres feels a lot nicer than the 32km that my last two TTs were, so I am hoping that I can start the week off with a really strong TT.”
“Then as we go into the hillier stages I'll just see what opportunities come up. I think at Thüringen I showed that if I race with instinct, then I can get a good result, and that's how I've won stages of the Giro in the past, so I'm hoping to look for my opportunities as they come.”
Returning as a more assured rider
As well as clearly being in some very strong form right now, Edwards is returning to the Giro d’Italia a different rider than she was in 2021.
Physically, she said, not all that much is different - “training is the same, it's still just going out and riding your bike hard” - but her mental approach to racing and her career is more assured.
“I'd say the biggest difference is my mindset shift,” she explained. “I used to feel quite anxious and unsure if I was doing the right thing, and now I feel a lot more confident, knowing this is what I'm doing and I have a team that's discussed all the options and this is the option we think is best and we're going to go forward with that and firmly commit to it, versus being like 'I'm doing it, but is this the right thing, I don't know, what are other people doing'.
“Instead I just think 'it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing, it doesn't matter what anyone else looks like, it doesn't matter what their race plan is'. I just have to focus on what's best for me.”
That seems to be working so far, and the Giro d’Italia will be the next big test for Edwards in a year that has already vindicated her decision to return to racing.
“I'm feeling really good about everything that I've done. It's definitely wavered, especially in the spring when things were feeling a bit dark, but I wanted to come back and see if I could do it," she said. "I believed that I could, it was hard to keep that belief, but it's been really nice to back myself the way I did the last week and think like 'you can do it, you did it’.”