Australian cyclist Sarah Gigante yesterday overpowered her rivals with a strong hill assault to claim a dominant final stage win, carrying off the women’s Tour Down Under title.
The AG Insurance-Soudal rider surged to overall victory after powering away from the field during a punishing 3km summit finish in the event’s third and final stage.
Gigante won the 93.4km stage by 16 seconds, followed by Dutch rider Nienke Vinke in second and fellow Australian rider Neve Bradbury in third.
Photo: AFP
An emotional Gigante, 23, paid tribute to her new team after switching from Movistar before the start of the WorldTour season.
“To come back full circle and with my new team and they believe in me so much. I’m just so grateful to everyone who kept believing in me. It’s so special,” Gigante said after the race.
Her victory came despite struggling for position within the peloton in blustery conditions during the stage from Adelaide to Willunga Hill.
“It was really difficult. My team was so amazing. I burnt so many of their matches and a few of mine, but they kept believing in me,” Gigante said. “It’s our first tour as a WorldTour team. Ally [Wollaston] won the first stage, I won the last stage and together we all won the ochre jersey. It’s just crazy.”
“I’m just so happy to get a win. It’s pretty tough when you’re only 23 and lots of people think you’re washed-up, and sometimes I did too. It was just so hard to keep believing in myself, but I did and AG Insurance-Soudal did, too,” she said.
Gigante left some notable climbers struggling in her wake as she attacked the famed Willunga Hill, which has an average gradient of 7.4 percent.
Three-time Tour Down Under winner Amanda Spratt trailed 27 seconds behind to finish fourth overall.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS