Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) will make her long-awaited comeback this week, returning to racing on Thursday after an injury absence of more than a year.
The Australian climber last pinned on a race number on August 3, 2025, when she rounded out the Tour de France Femmes in sixth place overall. Less than two seeks later, she broke her femur in a training crash, and she has suffered a series of setbacks in her recovery from it.
After getting back on her bike during the winter, her comeback was initially scheduled for March of this year, then pushed back to the Giro d'Italia in May, and then delayed again when it emerged she'd need further surgery to correct the metalware in her leg.
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Now, finally, she is back on a start list of a race, the Faun Tour, the hilly four-day stage race in France starting on Thursday.
"It’s been a long road back for her, and this is an important milestone in her recovery, so it’s only normal that she will start the race without any pressure”, said AG Insurance-Soudal sports director Dani Christmas.
Gigante will be joined in the AG Insurance-Soudal line-up by Megan Arens, the 19-year-old junior world time trial champion who will make her debut for the team after completing a shock mid-season transfer from Picnic-PostNL. Also in the squad are Lore De Schepper, Justine Ghekiere, Emma Siegers, and Urska Zigart.
“We are looking forward to a good race at the Faun Tour, where we are going with a really strong group of climbers ready to take on the challenges the four stages will present," said Christmas.
Gigante has not yet publicly spoken about her comeback but a social media update in mid-August suggesting she was on the right track and hinting at the toll the whole ordeal has had on her.
"Two surgeries, countless hours of rehab, and more postponed comeback dates than I care to count later… it’s been a pretty rough year," she wrote on the one-year anniversary of her crash.
"January became February, February became spring, and spring became summer. Watching the sport I love so much carry on without me and missing all three Grand Tours was hard, and wondering when and how I’d actually be able to race again, or when I’d finally stop limping, was harder.
"Thankfully, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have the most amazing people around me, who love me for more than what I can do on a bike. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly explain how much that has meant to me this year.
"I’m just so happy to be riding pain-free again and loving it, and now counting down the days until I race again! Ditching the limp has been nice too."
Gigante has been no stranger to setbacks during her career, with several long-term periods of absence from racing due to illnesses and injuries, including iliac artery endofibrosis in 2024.
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