Having raced just once in the last 12 months, Sarah Gigante storms back to claim victory in the Women’s Tour Down Under, in what is a remarkable comeback. The 23-year-old overcame injury, illness, and shaky form to break her rivals up Willunga Hill. Is this a one off, or the start or something big? The Men’s race begins on Tuesday, with young Aussie Luke Plapp ready to challenge the seasoned elites. Can he outshine his more experienced rivals and seize the Tour? It’s a big time for Aussie cycling.
Featured: Matt Keenan, cycling commentator, Channel 7.
Hear our chat with Alex de Minaur as he gets his Australian Open campaign underway, here. (https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-sport-daily/australian-open-de-minaur-tennis/103313858)
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ABC listen podcasts radio news music and more Super Sarah is the queen of Wanga and the winner of the Santos to and under that’s Victorian Sarah Gigante winning the women’s tour down under she’s barely raced in the last 12 months but that didn’t stop her cracking her
Rivals on Wanga Hill in the final stage who is the 23-year-old champion and what’s next for her in 2024 and the men’s race gets underway tomorrow with Jack ha Back Down Under for the tour and there’s a fresh face to keep an eye on for team Jaco alula it’s a big week for
Aussie cycling I’m poppy Penny and this is ABC Sport Daily Matt Keenan can probably only be described as Australia’s voice of cycling he’s working on the coverage of the T Down Under at the moment but he’s also covered the T to France and just about everything else cycling related Matt I want to start with Sarah Gigante
Winner of the women’s tour yesterday she won the race with a ballsy move on Wanga Hill in the final stage talk to me about her race uh her performance to win the stage up W longa Hill was one of the best performances that we’ve ever seen
In the history of this race she’s the queen of wunga and she wants to keep her crown she puts on the Crunch and the others are crumbling because it was a day where it was really windy and Sarah is a petite Pine size pocket rocket
Climber and the best way to get rid of a climber is to have a flat windy stage and that’s what they had until they got to the bottom of Wonga Hill and actually with 40 45 kilometers to go Sarah lost contact with the leaders she was caught
Out of position and when you’re riding in windy conditions if you are in the slipstream it’s 30% easier they managed to get Sarah in a position where she wasn’t in the slip string others were working together and she slipped off the back but she has already done so much
Work to this point of the race Sarah gante we knew this was going to be a potential problem for her fortunately she had couple of key teammates one of them tasmania’s anelo another one being a New Zealand Champion Ellie walliston they clawed their way back got in
Contact with the peleton once she hit the bottom of the climb she was in a happy place and she blew the race to Pieces it was magnificent they are experiencing why Sarah Gigante is one of the world class climbers and look at that Gap just opening up the journey for
Sarah to get to this two and hour under Victory hasn’t exactly been smooth she’s bad on injury she’s bad on illness and she felt like she’d been written off at just age 23 it’s pretty tough when you’re only 23 and then everyone’s well not everyone but lots of people think
You’re like washed up you know like sometimes I did too and it was just so hard to keep believing in myself but I did in like AG s did to yeah now we won so I’m just going to shake it up how has she overcome all of that for this
Victory it’s hard to believe isn’t it 23 almost written off she was she was the star junor Sarah Gigante at 18 years of age one of the youngest in the race is now the elite Women’s Australian Road Champion Take a Bow everything went well for her you know she won lots of Junior
Titles at National level she won a silver medal at Junior World Championships she was brilant school as well in fact in a final year at school in year 12 in May she broke both of her arms so she had to dictate her assignments to her mom and then by
September she’d been to the junior World Championships and she’d won a silver medal at the junior World Championships by the end of the year she completed her exams in her year 12 studies VC in Victoria and got the perfect school she was Unstoppable six Australian Championship gold medals one year ago a
Silver at the world championships a perfect score in year 12 and a perfect score around Mount bunong and then she had an amazing performance at the two down under when it was under the covid circumstances and there was no Internationals she dominated all the domestic Riders and then she got picked
Up by the world’s second or third biggest women’s team mov star and everything went wrong from that moment on she had illness she had injury continuous setbacks and for two years she didn’t achieve any of what M Star expected her to achieve her story is so
Similar to that of k 11 at the same point and I see her as the most exciting cyclist we’ve had on the road since Kel Evans Evans look at his face here he’s charging around this thing he’s making the course as short as possible clipping
Off the corners he is riding to win the Tour to France for Australia Today Kel in his first big year on the road breakout two of Italy he was in the pink jersey everybody thought he’s the next big St signed by the big German team Telecom had two disastrous years then
Picked up by small Belgium team and the rest is history Sierra has been picked up by a small Belgium team and the ball is rolling the game that’s a really exciting comparison and it’s hard to believe that comeback for her is this a one-off though do you think or is this
The start of something really special for the Victorian this is the equivalent for those that were on the side of the road that hadn’t heard of Sarah Gigante beforehand have been in a in the 60s in Liverpool and seen the Beatles for the first time this is just the beginning
You will be hearing the name of Sarah Gigante for the next 10 plus years she is only 23 urance athletes don’t reach their Peak until you know around 28 to 32 Ted 11’s won the T of France at 34 he’s the only Australian to have won the
Men’s to of France I believe Ser gante is capable of winning the women’s T to France not yet but at some point in the future it is very exciting for Australian cycling fans the men’s event starts tomorrow and I do want to touch on a couple of the Aussies but first I
Want to touch on Brit Simon Yates he was the runner up last year he’s the only member of last year’s top 10 in this year’s race does he go one better in 2024 do you think no I don’t I like your rationale and you make perfect sense but
I don’t think so I think that Simon Yates he’ll be close he’s definitely a contender Yates got it wrong a few days ago this time he timed it into the slipstream up and over the top Yates gets the stage Victory firmly in second place I think he’ll be working for his
Teammate I think he’ll be working for the new recruit across to the big Australian team and I think he’ll be working for Luke PL so that’s the role I see Simon Yates potentially playing this week I want to ask you about Luke PL he is the same age as Sarah Dante so
They’re both these sort of young upand comers jco Lula is his new team as you touched on he’s just joined that team along with the likes of of course Caleb euan and as you touch on Simon Yates he was recently crowned Australian national champion in the road race the time
Trials PL caught Wheeling he attacked and he won solo last year the time trial this year the road race his new team inos grenadiers no doubt delighted who is this kid he’s a superstar is what he is and you know how success breeds success if you look at serg gante she
Started at the Brunswick Cycling Club Luke PL started at the Brunswick Cycling Club recently crown Australian women’s Road champ Ruby Roseman Ganon also from the Brunswick C Club it’s this tiny Club of about 200 members and they’ve got three of the best cyclists in the world they’re doing something right with their
Junior program but Luke pla he wasn’t always destined to be a cyclist he actually got a scholarship to go to one of the sports schools in Melbourne for Cricket his childhood hero was Brendan fala he wanted to play cricket and football it just turned out he’s a way
Better bike rider it is three for PL what is it about Luke PL that has team jco alula going all in on this guy yeah and if I believe they’ve made a good decision with it he’s got he’s got a really good perspective on life and he
Can deal with pressure and that’s super important when you’re a team leader that was uh amazing out there I think from the gun we had everything under control in terms of his physiology the best comparison that I have with Luke plat is the Welsh Rider garrant Thomas Garren
Thomas was a star on the track one Olympic gold medals on the track Luke PL has been a star on the track up until this point Garen Thomas went on to win the Tour to France Luke PL has really similar physical characteristics to garant Thomas he hasn’t achieved what
Thomas has achieved yet but he’s on the right path and I think that is the perfect role model for Luke flap and just like Sarah gante I believe he is a potential Challenger for a top three finish at the to France I want to ask you about another Aussie and that’s Jack
Hag it’s really exciting to have him back at the two down under last year he finished inside the top 20 at the jro dalala and inside the top 30 in the tour to France he’s 30 years of age and you’ve touched on sort of some of those cyclists who have really achieved things
In their 30s do you get the feeling his best cycling is still ahead of him in 2024 I hope so because I’ve got a soft spot for him he’s one of the guys that I watched grow up actually as a mountain bike rider as a junior and as you know
In cometry you’re not meant to be biased but it’s hard when you watch someone that was 15 16 and had stars in their eyes and Jack is one of these guys that doesn’t really need much of the people ring pumping his tires up he’s really an independent operator this his first time
Back in Australia for eight years so he wants to come back here and make a really big impact I think that this year we’ll see Jack hag’s main focus will be the tut France I think he can finish in the top 10 at the Tor France and I
Believe that he can challenge for the top five here at the two down under not quite quite win it but challenge for the top five so Before I Let You Go who do you think will be our winner this weekend it’s going to be the Brunswick double if Sarah jante wins the women’s
Race Luke Platt wins the men’s race there’s something in the water in Brunswick Matt Kanan thanks so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the tour down under great thank You headlines we’re into day two of the Australian Open and we have our first upset of the tournament seven seed Marquetta Von drusa has been knocked out by Ukrainian Diana stemar in straight sets overnight world number one Novak jovic overcame a first round scare after being pushed for over four hours by the
187th ranked Dino pris get a return back prismic sits up for jovic’s backand can’t get the return and jovic prevails tremendous point and to finish a great match noack’s moving on4 he takes down the 18-year-old qualifier who gave him all he could handle tonight reigning Champion Arena
Sabalenka dished out a brutal first loss beating idle six love 61 as for the Aussies chriso Connell made it through to the second round in a five seter against Christian Garin storm Hunter is through in straight sets in what is her first singles win at her home slam and
In an all Aussie Affair Alexi poin knocked out Mark pulman danne Sweeney Adam Walton Jason Kuba and Taylor Preston also exited in the first round Alex demono gets his campaign underway tonight against Milos Ric and we caught up with Alex last week and that episode
Is in the show notes plus you can hear the Australian Open live and AD free on the ABC listen app football and Mary Fowler only played 23 minutes in Manchester City’s women’s FA Cup match but that was all she needed to make an impact picked up by Fowler and in the
Back of the net Man City beat Durham 4 nil in their fourth round match and Chelsea are adjusting to life without Sam Kerr but still managed to win over West Ham handing Katrina gory a loss on debut for her new team and have you ever been cold
At the footy well spare a thought for fans of Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team aka the Chiefs who played their playoffs Wild Card match against the Dolphins in minus 4° F which I’ve done the maths is -2° C the Chiefs got the wind 26 to 7
But it makes 6° in July at the MCG seem simply bomy I’m poppy Penny and this is ABC Sport Daily produc by Joel cassum thanks to SBS Channel 7 Road national championships and the women’s FA Cup for the extra audio used in this episode discover more great ABC podcasts live
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