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The women’s Tour Down Under has come to a close with 23-year-old Sarah Gigante making a triumphant comeback to win on the final stage up Willunga Hill.
Gigante was a late signing to AG Insurance-Soudal, a team newly promoted to the WorldTour for 2024. Sponsored by Specialized, it’s the sister team to the long-standing Soudal-Quick-Step men’s squad.
Here we take a look at Gigante’s new team bike, still grimy from winning the third and final stage of the Tour Down Under in dominant fashion.
The whole AG Insurance-Soudal squad is racing on the relatively new Specialized Tarmac SL8. It’s a decision made for the team with Specialized currently only offering the one model of purposeful race bike.
At 165 cm in height, Gigante rides a 49 cm frame with a relatively long 120 mm stem. Being such a fresh signing, Gigante seemingly missed out on official name stickers. Gigante’s bike is set up with smaller gearing than you may expect, with the Australian spinning a 52/36T gearing combo up Willunga. A 11-34T cassette is seen out back. Crank length is 165 mm. The Specialized Tarmac SL8 frame doesn’t offer the cleanest exit port for the Shimano Di2 rear derailleur wire. Here the team keeps it tangle-free with a few wraps of electrical tape. While the men’s Soudal-Quick-Step outfit runs stock Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 groupsets, the women’s team gets the CeramicSpeed upgrade including the Oversized Pulley Wheels System (OSPW).
No race-day-optimised chain here; rather the team is using a Soudal chain lube. All Specialized-sponsored teams in Australia are running Specialized Turbo Cotton tyres (26 mm printed width) with latex inner tubes. Gigante tackled Willunga with the shallow and light Roval Alpinist CLX wheels. The brake hoses are run beneath, not through, this stem .The Specialized Power saddle is a common sight in the women’s peloton, even amognst teams sponsored by other brands. Here Gigante uses a regular S-Works model. The Roval Rapide handlebar was a carry-over from the S-Works Tarmac SL7. Also a great time-trialist, Gigante uses a narrow 38 cm width handlebar. The K-Edge “Future Mount” is specifically matched to the Specialized stem. This holds a Garmin head unit. The Speed Sniffer is a defining feature of the Tarmac SL8. Yes, Specialized actually gave that name to its elongated head tube. The WolfPack. Meanwhile, the team’s colour shift paint is quite lovely. The Tarmac SL8 merges a few more traditionally-shaped frame tubes with an extremely slender seat tube. Sniffing speed.The spacer on the top of the stem suggests Gigante hasn’t fully committed to the stem height yet. That stem is the Specialized SL7 version, whereas the production S-Works SL8 uses the Roval Rapide one-piece cockpit. Despite the heavier stem and handlebar combo, Gigante’s bike would still be hovering around the UCI’s 6.8 kg weight limit. A K-Edge chain catcher is present in the off chance a mis-adjusted front derailleur or terrible luck strikes. More CeramicSpeed is seen at the English threaded bottom bracket. Like many WorldTour teams, AG Insurance-Soudal is using a smaller 140 mm rear rotor for reduced weight. AG Insurance-Soudal is the only WorldTour team on Garmin Rally power meter pedals. The riders are using the RS200 version which features a familiar Shimano SPD-SL cleat interface.
A strong headwind meant Sarah didn’t beat her own Strava QOM while winning on Willunga, but the power numbers were a new high. Those numbers, according to Strava, saw the Australian ride at an average of 296 W for nine minutes. Based on Gigante’s known weight of 52 kg (in 2021), that’s an incredible 5.7 W/kg effort.
