Melbourne teenager Sarah Gigante upstaged the might of Australia’s elite women riders to claim an historic national road race double at Buninyong on Sunday.
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The 18-year-old was crowned the FedUni Cycling Australia Road National Championshps’ elite and under-23 champion –becoming the first to win the two titles in the 104km event in the same year.
In a three-rider break away with Shara Gillow and Sarah Roy, Gigante made the winning break going through the Federation University precinct the second last time with 15km to go.
Once away she did not look like being caught, going on to score by a comfortable 50 seconds.
Pre-race favourite Amanda Spratt worked her way through the field late to finish second, with Roy fighting back to get bronze right on the line.
Gigante said getting overall honours and with it the elite crown had not entered her mind before the race. Her main focus was simply getting on the under-23 podium.
For Gigante, it completes a remarkable 12 months, which began with gold medals in under-19 criterium, road race and time trial at the national road titles.
Gigante said she was unsure what direction her cycling would take this year, given she was emabarking on Bachelor of Science studies at Melbourne University.
Last year’s elite champion Shannon Malseed finished 28th, in a group 6:14 back.