Sarah Gigante to line up for UCI Cycling Esports World Championships

Sarah Gigante has been added as the 14th member of the Australian team that will contest the 2022 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships later this month.

The 21-year-old won the silver medal at the inaugural world championships in 2020 and will aim to contribute to another strong result for her nation this year.

Gigante, a former Australian road race and time trial national champion, signed with professional road cycling team Movistar on a three-year contract starting this year.

However, her early season has been waylaid by myopericarditis, a scary heart condition that has kept her from racing since the Tokyo Olympic Games.

On top of that, a COVID-19 positive test prevented Gigante from making her planned return to racing at the Mitchelton Tour of Gippsland this week.

Despite the setbacks, the bubbly young rider from Brunswick Cycling Club is excited to contest this year’s world championships from her home in Melbourne.

“I have great memories of the first-ever edition in 2020, where Team Australia managed to come away with the silver medal,” Gigante said.

“I think we have a fantastic group of women taking to the start line this year, along with some brilliant support and the experienced Kate Bates as our DS, so I hope that we can have another good race and maybe even shoot for one place better!”

The UCI Cycling Esports World Championships will be held on Saturday, February 26 (Sunday morning in Australia). It will be contested on Zwift, a video game where the real-world efforts of the competitors, riding on stationary trainers, power their avatars in the game.

180 of the world’s best competitors will take to the start line in Zwift’s New York map to race the Knickerbocker Circuit, a selective course that includes three ascents of the New York KOM, a 1.4km climb with ramps of up to 17%.

The up-and-down profile for the 2022 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships course. (Source: Zwift)

“I’m expecting the competition to be very fierce, as virtual racing is growing so quickly and has already become a lot more professional in the last two years,” Gigante said.

“I have been riding the Knickerbocker course quite a lot on Zwift in the last month, and it’s a harder course than what it looks like on paper – especially as we have to have our trainer difficulty set to 100 per cent. Our team is well-suited to climbs though, so I think the attrition that is likely to occur will play into our hands.”

After representing Australia, Gigante is looking forward to heading overseas to compete on the road.

“It will be great to be able to do an important race on home soil – my lounge room is on home soil, after all – with fellow Australians before I jet over to Europe to commence my racing season with Team Movistar.”

Australian Cycling Team – 2022 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships

Women

• Katie Banerjee (NSW, AERO Racing Team)
• Justine Barrow (VIC, AERO Racing Team)
• Neve Bradbury (VIC, Canyon-SRAM)
• Sarah Gigante (VIC, Movistar)
• Bre Vine (ACT, AERO Racing Team)
• Rachael Wales (QLD, AERO Racing Team)
• Vicki Whitelaw (ACT, Team Heino)

Men

• Alex Bogna (QLD, Alpecin-Fenix Development Team)
• Ben Hill (ACT, AERO Racing Team)
• Sam Hill (NSW, AERO Racing Team)
• Freddy Ovett (VIC, L39ION of Los Angeles)
• Torben Partridge-Madsen (ACT, AERO Racing Team)
• Aiden Sinclair (NSW, Canyon Esports)
• Jay Vine (ACT, Alpecin-Fenix)

Photo: Casey Gibson