Amanda Spratt looks forward to the Giro Donne 2022 – ‘It’s the most exciting route we’ve had in a number of years’

Since 1993, when the Tour de France feminin was discontinued, the race has been the only “Grand Tour” on the women’s calendar. This year, however, finally sees the return of a women’s edition of the biggest bike race in the world.

It has inspired Giro organisers to up their game, improving the media presence of the race and delivering a course which Spratt describes as “the most exciting route that we’ve had in a number of years.”

Spratt, who won a stage of the 2018 edition of the race and has twice finished on the podium, will once again be targeting “a nice GC placing. That’s really my goal.”

As excited as the 34-year-old is to ride the Tour de France Femmes, the Giro Donne (formerly the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile) is undiminished in her eyes:

“Everybody wants to win it and wear the maglia rosa,” says Spratt. “Everyone wants the privilege of wearing the maglia rosa. I know what that feels like. It’s the one point in the season that everyone’s looking forward to and wants to be in the best form for.”

The race begins with three stages on the island of Sardinia. First is a 4.8km prologue time trial, then two relatively flat days finishing in Tortoli and Olbia respectively.

Both ought to end in bunch sprints “but you never know with the wind there,” says Spratt. Crosswinds could cause havoc or, at the very least, prematurely drain the batteries of a few riders hoping to contend for the overall.

The race then takes a travelling day as it heads to the mainland for the first real GC stage. A 120km loop around Cesena, in Emilia-Romagna, day four features three categorised climbs, including the 4.3km Colle del Barbotto, which averages 8% gradient and maxes out at 16.2%. Any one of these could offer an opportunity for a rider to make a race-winning attack, or take time on their rivals.

“It looks to be a really tough course around that Imola, Rimini area” says Spratt. “I don’t think the Giro will be won, but you can certainly lose seconds there.”

Spratt next likes the look of Stage 6, on July 6th. The route travels the short distance from Grumello del Monte to Bergamo, via five laps of an attritional circuit. “That’ll certainly be a tough one, where there might be some seconds,” she says.

“The real GC will start on Stage 7,” says Spratt “where we have the mountain top finish up Passo Maniva.” Officially a 9.7km climb, the road actually begins to rise more than 30km earlier, before steepening significantly in its final third. Even with three stages to follow that could certainly be where the Giro Donne is won.

For Stages 8 and 9 “we move into the Garda and Trento areas,” says Spratt. “It’s really climb-heavy, with quite a few technical descents. If you’re not already tired at that point, they’ve thrown in the hardest stages at the finish to really split the peloton apart.”

The Giro Donne concludes on stage 10, with “a nice pan-flat one for the sprinters,” finishing in Padova, near Venice.

Tactically, Spratt says, “a lot of it’s going to be how well you manage yourselves in the first stages, to ensure you turn up in the best shape possible in the last stages.”

As important as the parcours will be, it’s the riders who make the race. Who can we expect to be contending for the overall crown?

Unlike on the men’s side of the sport, in which most riders choose to target either the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France, a number of big-name female riders have expressed their intentions to go for both races.

For Amanda Spratt, it’s all about one woman:

“Annemiek van Vleuten, you can’t see past her,” she says. “She’d have to be the top pick.”

After her former team-mate, Spratt points to a couple of home riders.

“Elisa Longo Borghini, Marta Cavalli… The Italian riders will turn up in great shape and are always super motivated for the Giro.”

As far as teams are concerned, Spratt expects SD Worx to be the ones to beat. “They always turn up with a really strong team and multiple riders that can win and force the race,” she says. “There’s going to be many riders that can have a top result there.

The Giro Donne runs from June 30th to July 10th.

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