'The Giro was just like a hard training week' - Sarah Gigante well-placed as she heads towards her favoured mountain territory at Tour de France Femmes

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance–Soudal Team) is the last woman standing at the Tour de France Femmes from among the riders who earlier this month stood on the overall podium at the Giro d’Italia Women.

Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx–Protime) was out on the very first day with illness, and then before the third stage, Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) departed the race. The rider from Australia, however, is still going strong.

It may not have been a comfortable ride through the opening stages, but that’s nothing to do with the load of work she did at the Giro to secure that podium spot and mountain top victories on stage 4 and 7.

"I'm feeling good. Just looking forward to getting through today's stage and then on to some harder stages starting from tomorrow,” said Gigante at the start of stage 4, which was a final relatively flat opportunity for the sprinters. "So yeah, feeling good, just haven't been loving the terrain quite as much."

It should come as no surprise that the Australian wasn’t fond of the stages on offer through the opening four days, it's the type of parcours where she shed a valuable 1:42 in the Giro on stage 5 in the crosswinds. At the Tour de France Femmes so far the racing has been aggressive, the crashes all too frequent, splits have occurred, and the punchy climbs that have worked their way into the racing have been far too short for the climber. Still, she’s found plenty of positives along the way.

"It's been an unforgettable Tour so far, with Kim Le Court (AG Insurance–Soudal Team) taking yellow already," said Gigante of her teammate who claimed the jersey for a day after adding a third place on stage 2 to her runner-up spot on the opening stage. "Our little team isn't so little anymore."

Plus, even while working to support Le Court’s objectives AG Insurance–Soudal Team has also worked to keep Gigante, who placed seventh overall last year on debut, well placed. That has helped Gigante get through the first four stages in a healthy position overall, sitting 19th at 51 seconds behind current race leader Marianne Vos (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) and 33 seconds behind top GC favourite Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Ineos Grenadiers), who is in fourth. Gigante's teammate Le Court sits in third, 12 seconds back from Vos and 6 seconds ahead of Ferrand-Prévot.

However, the terrain that plays to the climbing strength of the rider, who has so clearly recovered well from last year's Iliac artery endofibrosis surgery, is on the way. The ascents which build to a summit finish on Col de La Madeleine on stage 8, and then a challenging finale to Châtel, will play to her strengths.

"Of course, I'm looking forward to getting to the mountains and some long climbs in the last two stages look awesome," said Gigante. "But of course, we have to see where we're sitting in GC with Kim, and hopefully we can get her back in yellow."

Le Court entered as the leader for this race, though she doesn’t have the same type of record on the long climbs and AG Insurance–Soudal Team is clearly trying to keep Gigante in contention as well, particularly as there are no signs that the 24-year-old is waning after the Giro.

"I mean, I train really hard anyway, so apart from not having my usual recovery day in the week, the Giro was just like a hard training week, which I would do before the Tour anyway," said Gigante. "I needed a couple of rest days. Just mentally, I think that was good to reset and then I wasn't sure if I was coming to the Tour until two days before I flew out. But I trained and prepared as if I was, so I came here ready."

And a ready Gigante, as evidenced by her Giro performance, is a rider not to trifle with.

"We can't wait to see what she can do in the Tour," said AG Insurance–Soudal Team sports director Jolien D'hoore earlier in the week. When asked what the thought was possible for Gigante her answer was simply "a lot, a lot is possible".