RACE PREVIEW: JUNE 29 – JULY 7
GIRO D’ITALIA INTERNAZIONALE FEMMINILE (2.1)
ORICA-AIS name eight-woman team for Giro Rosa
ORICA-AIS has named the eight riders to line up for the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, the only women’s Grand Tour of the season, starting on Friday.
The Australian outfit will field a team that features four ‘Giro Rosa’ debutants as they attempt to continue the form that has delivered them six victories in the past month.
“The first goal is to gain experience in a stage race such as the Giro,” sport director Gene Bates said. “For the women, it’s the biggest race of the year and there is a lot of hype with that.”
“It’s a great race and this year it’s all in the north of Italy so we are really excited that we will be racing pretty much in our back yard.”
In her second Giro Rosa, 2015 Oceania time trial champion Katrin Garfoot will be supported to ride for a strong overall result. The 33-year-old rode to three podium places at the recent Euskal Emakumeen Bira and Bates is confident she can continue her front at the top end of the peloton.
“We will go in with Kat trying to get a good classification result,” Bates explains. “She has been climbing really well and in Bira she really came to the front of the racing which was great to see.”
“With her known time trialing ability, it puts her in a good place to go for the overall. We won’t put any expectations on it but we are looking forward to seeing what she can do in that area.”
Meanwhile, the remainder of the team will have some freedom to go for stage victories.
Bates is confident that the ten-day Tour offers various opportunities for the ORICA-AIS line up, particularly recent Giro del Trentino winner Amanda Spratt and 2015 Santos Women’s Tour champion Valentina Scandolara.
“For the rest of the girls, it really is about chasing stage opportunities,” Bates said. “Especially with Spratty and Valentina, we have really good opportunities to be aggressive, get into some breakaways and try and make the most of it.”
“We have done some recon-ing of the Tour. There is going to be some surprises during the week so it always pays to do your homework.
“We have earmarked a couple of stages that we will focus on more so than others and try to catch some of the other teams out.”
With three and five previous Giro Rosa starts respectively, Spratt and Scandolara will provide the experienced heads in a relatively inexperienced outfit.
“Spratty has really stepped up in the leadership area in the last few races and she was really excellent at that in Trentino and managed to finish off the job as well,” Bates said. “Well look to her to provide leadership to the group and to Valentina to keep the team motivated and alive out on the road, which she is really good at doing.”
Of the remaining five riders, all Australian, Rachel Neylan is the only other with previous experience having rode the Italian Grand Tour back in 2011. The remaining four riders – Chloe McConville, Sarah Roy, Macey Stewart and Lizzie Williams – all in their first year with ORICA-AIS, will debut.
“It’s a bit of an unknown for some of these girls but we will take it day by day,” Bates said. “I am sure they will have good days and bad days but we are just looking to have a really good positive experience with the race and try and come away with as much learning as possible for the group.”
ORICA-AIS at the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile (3-12 July):
Katrin Garfoot (AUS, 33), 2nd appearance
Chloe McConville (AUS, 27), 1st appearance
Rachel Neylan (AUS, 33), 2nd appearance
Sarah Roy (AUS, 29), 1st appearance
Valentina Scandolara (ITA, 25), 6th appearance
Amanda Spratt (AUS, 27), 4th appearance
Macey Stewart (AUS, 19), 1st appearance
Lizzie Williams (AUS, 31), 1st appearance
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Next on the program for Team Liv-Plantur is the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, starting this Friday with a 2km prologue in the city of Ljubljana (SLO). The Italian race features nine stages on a mix of flat roads and rolling roads but also includes mountain stages, with distances ranging from 92.7km to 128.4km and one individual time trial of 21.7km.
It will be Team Liv-Plantur’s second participation in this race and the team can look back at a 6th place in the GC last year with Claudia Lichtenberg (GER), who won the Italian ‘Grand Tour’ for women in 2009. With her second place at the German Road Race Championships, Lichtenberg has shown she has come into good form on time and will be aiming for a good result once again. Alongside the German, the climbers Sabrina Stultiens (NED) and Molly Weaver (GBR) will be looking for their opportunities in the mountain stages.
With a second place at the British Time Trial Nationals and a fourth at the Road Race, Weaver seems to be on form at the moment. The same goes for Swede Sara Mustonen-Lichan, who took two silver medals at her country’s championships. With Floortje Mackaij (NED), Team Liv-Plantur has options to go for a stage victory. The roster is completed by reliable support riders Willeke Knol (NED), Julia Soek (NED) and Kyara Stijns (NED).
“With Lichtenberg and Stultiens we have two women who belong to the best climbers in the peloton. However, Stultiens is recovering from sickness and Lichtenberg is just returned from a long period of injury absence, but her second place at the German Nationals do give confidence. But we will have to await to extend they are ready to compete for a nice GC result,” said coach Hans Timmermans (NED).
“With Mackaij, Stijns and Weaver we have three debutants. For them it will be their first experience in the Giro Rosa, which will become a nice adventure for their development at their age. For Mustonen-Lichan we must find a balance between her supporting role and going for her chance in the sprints. We will reconsider this day-by-day.”
