This article was first published in Issue 139 of our magazine
Of the team’s many memorable moments of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2025, two acts of selfless teamwork stood out from AG Insurance-Soudal. Both involved the 25-year-old Australian, Sarah Gigante. In the final kilometre into Guéret on stage five the climber was at the front of a select group digging deep, putting all her effort into the finale as Tour winners Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney sat behind. But the rider from Melbourne was not doing it to preserve or bolster her own position on the general classification, but rather to set up her teammate Kim Le Court to take the stage win and the maillot jaune.
Moments before, Gigante had been off the back on the descent from Le Maupuy. Her determination to catch back and drive the front group on, meant they kept Marianne Vos at enough of a distance behind for Le Court to take the yellow jersey. The dedication to the team did not go unnoticed – Le Court became the first African to win a stage at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and said: “Without Gigante, I would not have done what I did today.”
Read more: Kim Le Court’s meteoric ascent through the pro cycling peloton
A few days later, Le Court – unprompted by the team car – was on the front of the peloton at the bottom of the Col de la Madeleine setting a pace for Gigante to attack, in doing so sacrificing all hope of retaining the yellow jersey. An hour or so later, a tearful Gigante stood shivering on the top of the summit, having finished second on the stage behind Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. “To have the yellow jersey sacrifice herself for me, that is next level,” she said. “That’s the kind of stuff that gives you goosebumps.”
It would be remiss to claim the riders were just returning favours. Rather, it is part of the culture at AG Insurance-Soudal – Gigante and Le Court are among a group of riders who not only have the will but also the longing to work, sacrifice and struggle for each other. Gigante herself is someone who thrives in that kind of environment, and her results from a flourishing 2025 season back this up.
A few months on from a fruitful summer, which included two stage wins at the Giro d’Italia in July and that prosperous Tour, Gigante is home in Melbourne. Neither the time passed nor distance from cycling’s European heartlands dim or dampen her enthusiasm for the ambiance in the AG…