Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling heads into the 25th edition of the Giro d’Italia Femminile – the Giro Rosa – with the aim of at least matching last year’s stage victory from former two-time World Champion Giorgia Bronzini. The race gets underway with a 2.05km prologue time trial on the cobbled streets of Caserta, near Naples, this evening, and will finish on the iconic Madonna del Ghisallo on Sunday, the 13th of July, after nine stages.
“The Giro is an important race for Wiggle Honda due to having many loyal and dedicated Italian sponsors,” said Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling managing director Rochelle Gilmore. “Our athletes are all in great condition and very much looking forward to supporting our Italian sprinter, Giorgia Bronzini in her quest for another stage win. All our athletes have the condition to pull off a stage win so it will be an exciting race to follow!”
With such a short prologue, and with time bonuses at each stage finish and intermediate sprint, five-time stage winner Bronzini has one eye on the possibility of her first ever pink jersey.
“I will try to do my maximum in the prologue,” Bronzini said. “It’s not really my sort of race, but if the gap is not so much then maybe tomorrow I can think about the GC.”
With several of the race’s nine stages likely to finish in bunch sprints, Bronzini is looking to take every opportunity possible to add to her tally of five Giro stage wins. When the peloton hits the mountains in the north of Italy towards the end of the race, however, she will be putting her considerable power to the service of her teammates.
“In the first half of the Giro every stage can be good for me,” she said. “I have no favourite stage that I will say ‘I will give everything for that,’ but I will give all my power in the first stages, and after that I would like to be good for helping Linda [Villumsen] and Mayuko [Hagiwara] in the GC. I won’t need to think about saving my energy in the last stages, so I will give my maximum to help the girls.
“For the first half of the Giro I will be looking for results, and after that I will be there to help the team,” Bronzini added.
Having ridden strongly in her debut in the Giro, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Mayuko Hagiwara is looking forward to a second appearance at the race, which will give her the opportunity to show off her new Japanese Champion’s jersey in both the opening prologue and the nine road stages.
“I am really happy to race the Giro with this team in my new national jersey,” said Hagiwara. “I want do all my best for the team to take a big win in the Giro because our team has some very strong riders.
“We will all be out to get a good result in the Giro,” she added. “I want to ride well in the mountains.”
Bronzini and Hagiwara will be accompanied in the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team by New Zealanders Linda Villumsen and Emily Collins, Australian Peta Mullens, former Swedish champion Emilia Fahlin and German Tour of Zhoushan Island winner Charlotte Becker.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Team for the Giro Rosa
Charlotte Becker (Germany), Giorgia Bronzini (Italy), Emily Collins (New Zealand), Emilia Fahlin (Sweden), Mayuko Hagiwara (Japan), Peta Mullens (Australia), Linda Villumsen (New Zealand)
