One year since her femur injury, Sarah Gigante is finally "counting down the days" till her competition return
CyclingMonday, 17 August 2026 at 06:00
Sarah Gigante built herself the reputation of one of the best climbers in the women's peloton, having third overall at Giro d'Italia Women and 7th at Tour de France Femmes in 2025. But the next step - to fight for overall title - has been postponed by a year. Not by choice; Gigante suffered a femur fracture in a training crash.
Since then, the AG Insurance - Soudal rider has been out of competition for over a year now. During that period, her recovery progressed massively and soon, we should expect the 25-year-old Australian pin on the racing numbers.
"Today marks 365 days since I broke my femur," Gigante begins her Instagram story. "Two surgeries, countless hours of rehab, and more postponed comeback dates than I care to count later… it’s been a pretty rough year. 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."
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Through all the hardships, Gigante is extremely grateful for all the support she has received. "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!"
Sarah Gigante
Two months for return
The season is already coming to a close, but there are still several opportunities for Gigante at least regain a race rhythm. The Australian could be eyeing the Faun Classic Femmes, or some of the late-autumn Italian one-day races for her return, once she's ready.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- What you've described is certainly possible. But if Pog didn't exist then various aspects may have been different, leading to other outcomes. Roglic would have won the Tour in 2020, and may have remained undisputed leader of Jumbo-Visma in 2021 and 2022. Visma would not have (still) been out for revenge in 2022, so may have instructed Jonas to keep supporting Roglic instead of going for the win himself. (and not have focused so much on developong Jonas). 2024 would not have been Jonas's hattrick year at the Tour, so after his Itzulia crash (if indeed he rode Itzulia) he might have skipped that Tour. But Jonas may have had to change teams to get out from Roglic's shadow. And so on, you see what I mean :) (Not to be taken too seriously)Hills3317-08-2026
- now it gets stupid. why on earth should everyone be proud of their country or even love it? i am german ...Ketterechts17-08-2026
- Van der Poel has to be higher than Vingegaard there I’d say. Vingegaard counts as of now as obviously a superb grand tour rider but certainly not a stand out all time great - and doesn’t even meaningfully compete in for example Liege - while VdP does stand out as an all-time great Classics rider. You can’t just stack everything too much towards the Grand Tour riders.AndrewK17-08-2026
- I think you will find THAT is not the reason because you find the same happens in all sorts of sports and other walks of life where there are no dangers. Celebrities, actors, musicians, athletes, etc. Most people (for many different reasons) don’t search very far outside their environment (job, village, nationality, race, social class, etc.) And yes, I’m saying it’s dangerous, I’m NOT saying you can make it safe but you can eliminate unnecessary risk without disproportionate costs. You don’t go climbing with a used rope or diving without backup, you don’t work on motorways without deviating traffic, you don’t touch electrical cables without switching off a fuse. The problem with incidents is that they usually occur because we’ve placed our trust in others assuming they’ve checked safety for us only to discover they cut corners and didn’t warn anyone. Read up on the Irish teen who died by electrocution in a shower in Greece and you’ll know what that means. No rider can go check safety during a race, if they could though, do you really think they’d accept racing down a dangerous swerving road knowing there was no-one ahead to block a car from entering at any time? As amateurs you often have to race on open roads where you’re told specifically to take care that sections are open to traffic, you NEVER see anyone cutting all the way to the inside of a blind corner at full speed in those situations, why? Because when you csn choose your own level of risk, you inherently decide better than what having faith alone can offer.Mistermaumau17-08-2026
- Equal but not the same, try thinking past the first degree, you have thousands of years of knowledge, education and progress within access to reach enlightenment.Mistermaumau17-08-2026
- Sorry to break it to you but this is hardly surprising as it’s pretty common. Most men would stay lazy assed f’s, lisers or dead if someone wasn’t behind them pushing them to be useful. Have a good look around you. Don’t forget your mother in your thoughts, or maybe you regret how you turned out, probably mostly thanks to her?Mistermaumau17-08-2026
- Don’t ask people to change their povs ;-)Mistermaumau17-08-2026
- And those 19 were probably spent plotting;-)Mistermaumau17-08-2026
- @mistermaumau if your point is that cycling is dangerous and no-one should want their loved ones to be in danger, well that is a completely irrelevant point because most of the peloton has long since accepted that. It's part of the reason why so many of the pros have spouses who are cyclists. Tadej Pogačar, Isaac del Toro, Giulio Pellizzari are three that popped into my head instantly
Rafionain-Glas17-08-2026 - Totally, You can go even further and criticise some of the biggest riders (some others can say they have little choice) but when you’re a superstar and can basically pick and choose who to ride for and under what conditions, what does it say about you (or the set-up) that you voluntarily continue to work for dubious people getting paid by immoral money? If your favourite riders accepts the past doping legacy then who are you to demand others should get ignored? Be a man and take things into your own hands, stop being a hypocrite, ignore them yourself, don’t comment or draw attention because the more you do the more you encourage their continued relevance.Mistermaumau17-08-2026
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