Queen of the Giro mountains: Aussie Gigante wins again
Just three days after the recording the biggest win of her flourishing career in the mountainous fourth stage, the 24-year from Melbourne pulled off an even more remarkable win in the penultimate seventh stage in the Umbrian Apennines on Saturday.
It shot the euphoric Gigante into third position in the overall standings, just one minute 11 seconds adrift of Italian race leader Elisa Longo Borghini, who took the pink jersey off Swiss Marlen Reusser by 22 seconds.
That's left Gigante still dreaming of an unlikely triumph after Sunday's final eighth stage, a 130km route between Forlì and Imola.
"I'm still a bit far back in the general classification, but I'll give it a go tomorrow," said the AG Insurance-Soudal rider. "Obviously, will be hard to defend that lead, but we'll try."
Gigante was all smiles after an interviewer suggested following her second stunning triumph -- this time in the race's most demanding 'queen stage' -- that she might now like to be called the 'princess of the mountains'.
"The princess? Yeah, sure - or the queen!" she responded with a laugh.
Gigante left the home fans stunned when she broke away from the pack on the final climb of the 150km route from Fermignano to Monte Nerone to catch their hero, stage leader Longo Borghini, with three kilometres to go.
She then powered away to annex the stage win by 45 seconds, recording the fastest time ever by a woman rider on the Monte Nerone ascent.
"I had studied the final climb and decided to attack on the steep section. I wanted to show that stage four-win wasn't just a one-off, but that I came to Italy to achieve great results," she said.
This exciting talent had surgery last year to fix Iliac artery endofibrosis, a debilitating condition that occurs when high blood flow and repetitive hip flexion cause the artery to narrow.
Last year's Tour Down Under winner in Adelaide has snared three senior national road titles, but these four days have represented the highlight of her career.
"I knew I felt really good," she said, when she decided to attack Longo Borghini. "I saw on my Garmin, there was a little flat section, and then it went steep again.
"And I knew she was pretty tired after being out there a while, and I felt good -- so I went for it, although I was dying a thousand deaths in the last kilometre because it was so steep.
"It's really special moving into the GC podium place," added Gigante, who had been sixth overnight and is now also lying second, just a point behind Spain's Usoa Ostolaza, in the Queen of the Mountains standings.
"That's really special. It's my first year. I did the Vuelta last year, and I finished 19th, and then I was seventh on the Tour (de France). So if I can come home with third place overall this week, then I'd be very happy."
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