Ready to ride the women’s Giro d’Italia

We will be bringing Megan Armitage, Letizia Borghesi, Kim Cadzow, Clara Emond, Nina Kessler, Clara Koppenburg and Magdeleine Vallieres. Our selection is a mix of Giro rookies and veterans, climbers and sprinters, all of whom have been specially prepared for this Grand Tour. Our team will be looking for stage wins, while keeping a close eye on the general classification.

The eight-day race begins in Brescia, in the foothills of the Alps, with a 15.7km time trial. The route heads south, featuring a mix of sprint stages, tough finishes and mountaintop climbs. The queen stage finishes on the iconic Blockhaus, a category one climb that is sure to turn the race on its head.

Hear what our riders hope and expect from the race.

This is not only my first Giro, but also my first Grand Tour. I am excited, but also a bit nervous! I am expected to fulfil my role as best as I can and help the team in any way I can, so that we can achieve the best possible result in the general classification. It will be a great learning experience for me and I hope to gain some confidence in myself.

The Giro is a short transition from last week in Thuringia to the Giro, but I hope that after those six tough racing days in Germany and some rest in between I will be completely ready for the Giro!

The Giro is always a special race for me because it is in my home country and it is the race where I got my first pro win. I really liked that feeling and I want to fight for it again. My condition is really good. I did a lot of great races in the last months and a good elevation gain in Passo del Tonale. Last week on the climbs in Thuringia I had good legs and I stayed with the main climbers and I am really happy with my time trial performance there. These are all good signs for the Giro, so I am going into this race with a lot of confidence. We have a very strong team and we will all fight for the best to bring something big for the team.

My first time racing the Giro! I’m excited. I love racing in Italy. The landscape is unreal and the riding is epic. I love the course in Italy with the mountains and the big valleys. It’s such an experience to race in Italy because they have such a strong tradition of the sport and it’s their passion.

But not only the riding. The hotels and the restaurants can cook incredible pasta. As a rider I think you can really appreciate Italian pasta because we eat a lot of it! They cook it to perfection. And then one of the best things about racing in Italy is the pizza after the race.

We have such a strong team. And that’s what makes EF-Oatly-Cannondale such a great team: our strengths on and off the bike.

I am really excited to ride the Giro for the first time! We are going into the Giro with very high team expectations. We want to go for the pink jersey as a team.

I’m looking forward to stage seven. On paper it looks super tough with almost 4,000 meters of elevation. It will definitely be as tough as it looks, but I think it will be a stage that suits our team.

I have mixed feelings about the Giro. In my first four years I was always a key domestique and we had a lot of success. In my last two Giros I fought for a top 10 in the general classification and crashed both times in the penultimate stage, breaking my pelvis. I hope that the saying about things happening in threes doesn’t come true and that I finish the race happy and healthy and in one piece.

I like that we can be 100 percent sure that we always have well-cooked pasta, that there is a good balance between flat and hilly stages so that many riders have a chance of winning, and that in an eight-day stage race you can generally apply a lot of tactics!

Personally I hope to feel strong and be the best supporter I can for my teammates. I want to feel good on the climbs and take responsibility. I hope to be in a few breakaways and who knows what can happen then.

I hope that the team will achieve our team goals, that we will get a good position in the rankings and that we will have a great and fun time while giving everything for each other.

It’s my fifth time racing the Giro. I remember the first time I did it, after the finish I said: “Never again!” But I actually love this race. In my opinion it’s the hardest stage race, but the Italian fans are amazing. Pink everywhere and people really cheer us on. It’s definitely a very hard race, but I’m looking forward to racing in Italy again.

The level is high and the stages are tough, but I think with the team we have we can achieve great results if we can put all the pieces of the puzzle in place.

I feel really good. I had a good form at the national championships recently and I am really looking forward to the Giro. We have a really strong team and we are all going into it in good shape. We have quite big goals. I feel good mentally. I am very excited.

My goal is mainly to be the best teammate I can be and to protect our GC leader so we can get the best team result. I’m looking forward to all eight stages. We’ll have some pretty good ones and some pretty tough ones, but I’m excited.