"August the second is a day I've been waiting for ever since the courses came out," a bubbly Sarah Gigante told reporters as she warmed down alongside the AG Insurance-Soudal team bus after stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes.
She had every reason to be excited after coming over the line in Chambéry and holding to a spot in the top 10 overall, as well as plenty of hope of moving up as tomorrow the Col de la Madeleine awaits.
The effervescent Australian had just made it through stage 7, one that on paper looked to be a big risk to her GC position given the long downhill run to the line but she once again made it through with her GC aspirations relatively unscathed.
"I didn't know which stage I was most worried about, all of them up to now, so definitely relief to have the first seven stages done," said Gigante as she reached the point of the race she had been waiting for ever since the route was announced.
"Even before I knew if I was picked or not, I was hoping I'd be there to race up Col de la Madeleine. And I'm coming in feeling good, and the team's had such a wonderful week already."
AG Insurance-Soudal have Kim Le Court-Pienaar in the yellow jersey of the race leader, after she delivered a spectacular effort on the descent to come back to the group of top GC contenders. Gigante is in eighth spot at 1:14 down from her teammate and 48 seconds behind second-placed Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike).
The gap has been kept under control, with a huge effort not only from Gigante but also her team, with Justine Ghekiere always seeming to be there to help when she has been distanced on the downhill.
"Justine saved my GC once again," said Gigante. "I still lost 11 seconds, but without her, I think it would have been minutes. So yeah, 'thanks Justine'," she said laughing as she told reporters that her teammate had been delivering "a mix of encouragement and yelling at me. – 'Go on, don't break. Don't break. Don't break. Come on, doing so well. Come on, Sarah, don't break."
Gigante, who came third overall at the Giro d'Italia after two spectacular climbing efforts and two stage wins, lost 1:42 in the splits of stage 5 at that race– more than what ultimately stood between her and the maglia rosa – and the team has done everything they can to make sure that didn't happen in France.
Sports Director Jolien D'Hoore made it clear early on that even with Le Court-Pienaar in yellow, "I also want to fight for Sarah".
It's a decision that has paid off and now, given Gigante's display on the climbs at the Giro, there is no telling what happens next when she gets her chance on the Col de la Madeleine, a long and undoubtedly pivotal 18.6km at 8.1 percent gradient.
At the Giro d'Italia, Gigante took 45 seconds on the second-placed Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) on Mount Nerone, with its 14.8km at 6.6%. The questions now is what can she do when the climb is longer and steeper?
"The other teams don't know what's coming," said her yellow-jersey clad teammate Le Court-Pienaar.
"She's been saving herself this whole week. She's been, you know, this little bunny that's been really excited, but we've been trying to keep her under control. So, tomorrow's D-Day, and also for myself, I'll see how I feel and take it day by day. We are looking forward to it. It's two more days, so we will, for sure, fight."
The race leader added that she thought the other teams were scared of Gigante, but didn't want to admit. Around the buses Gigante she was certainly a name on many sports directors lips.
So Australia, who has not ever had a stage winner at the recently-rebooted version of the Tour de France Femmes or an overall podium placer, can now dream of victories and yellow, as even if things don't work out this year Gigante and her impressive AG Insurance-Soudal squad have at the very least shown they have what it takes to pursue yellow, this year and beyond.
With just two days of racing to go, their rivals haven't managed to push Le Court-Pienaar and Gigante from their strong positions, in first and eighth
"I think they have missed a couple of opportunities," said Gigante. "They could have got rid of me yesterday, maybe Kim today. We'll see what happens but from our point of view, hopefully they live to regret it."
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