Canyon-SRAM, third within the UCI world rankings, brings a roster loaded with climbers, together with younger stars Neve Bradbury and Antonia Niedermaier, for the Giro d’Italia Ladies, July 7-14.
Two Giro veterans lead the GC hopes – Elise Chabbey, who returns for a fifth time, and Italian Soraya Paladin, who makes an eleventh look to her house Grand Tour. Chabbey comes off a Tour de Suisse mountains classification win, whereas Paladin completed within the prime 10 at each the RideLondon Classique and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas.
“It is all the time a brilliant good tour with totally different sorts of phases and plenty of alternatives. We come there with Neve and Antonia, two younger, gifted climbers, and I am excited to help them throughout the tour,” Chabbey mentioned.
Additionally on the beginning line are Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka, Alice Towers and Maike van der Duin, who all make their debuts on the Giro.
Not on the roster is final 12 months’s Giro runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma, who received the mountains classification a couple of days in the past on the Thüringen Girls Tour. Final week, she inked a brand new contract with Canyon-SRAM to increase her time on the WorldTour stage by way of 2026, a complete of 9 years with the workforce. She was now taking a brief relaxation earlier than a coaching camp earlier than the Paris Olympic Video games, the place she’s going to compete for Workforce Poland within the highway race, then be a part of Canyon-SRAM for Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
“Particularly on the Tour de Suisse, we confirmed that we had been a united group using strongly collectively,” mentioned Bradbury, who completed second on GC at this 12 months’s Swiss stage race whereas Niedermaier was sixth and Chabbey 14th.
“The Giro is my greatest goal of the season. All my preparations have been for the Giro, and I’ve accomplished all I can to be in the most effective form for this race. We’ve proven we will battle in opposition to all groups and are prepared for this Grand Tour.”
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After the opening particular person time trial in Brescia to open the eight days of racing, Van der Duin will put her dash expertise to the take a look at on stage 2, the place the primary bunch dash is predicted on the circuit end in Volta Mantovana. The subsequent three days cowl undulating terrain for a rating of alternatives, together with one other bunch dash on stage 5.
Nevertheless, the ultimate weekend provides pure climbing days within the mountains of Umbria. The queen stage is stage 7, with 3,700 metres of elevation achieve and two ascents of Passo Lanciano adopted by a summit end of Blockhaus. The final word take a look at of the week will likely be a first-category climb at Castel del Monte on the ultimate stage between Pescara and L’Aquila.
“Blockhaus is important, however there are a whole lot of phases that can play a task in GC,” Bradbury noticed.
“It received’t all be left to stage seven. Stage 4 has a difficult finish with sharp, steep hills; stage six can be attention-grabbing. Blockhaus will likely be simply arduous, and it’ll rely on who has the legs on the day. Stage eight is hilly, and everybody’s fatigue will likely be excessive. It makes for an thrilling Giro, and I can’t wait to start out.”
Bradbury displayed spectacular climbing skills on the Tour de Suisse final month, incomes her first World Tour win at stage 3 earlier than securing second within the GC. Niedermaier, a Giro d’Italia stage winner in 2023 on the age of 20, confirmed her climbing strengths with two prime 10s at La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour and her prime 10 on GC at Tour de Suisse.
The younger climbing duo offers Canyon-SRAM many choices for the overall classification, in addition to the youth classification. Chabbey mentioned that stage 3 introduced a chance for them to shake up the GC earlier than the weekend. That 111km stage is essentially flat from Sabbioneta to Toano, and brings the primary mountaintop end of the race, a 10km climb of La Collina.
“I feel phases two and 5 will likely be for the sprinters, phases three, seven and eight will decide the GC, and phases 4 and 6 will be extra open. These are those I’m essentially the most enthusiastic about to seize my alternatives in some breakaways.”
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