The fifth stage of La Vuelta Femenina was one of the defining moments of Sara Gigante's career.

The 23-year-old AG Insurance Soudal rider has had a number of uphill and time trial results in her home country, including a title in Australia, a victory in the Willunga stage, and an overall win in the Santos Tour Down Under, but injuries, health, and circumstances has limited his racing calendar in Europe until now.

"I was really looking forward to today's race with the uphill finish. Not only because of this race, but also because for the first time in my life I could test my climbing legs against the top GC riders," said Gigante in a media release from AG Insurance Soudal. [Especially Ilse (Pluimers), Maud (Reinbeek), and Anya (Roux). They were great! Unfortunately, Anya and I crashed on the first climb. We had to change bikes, but Julie (Van de Velde) dropped back and paced us to the pack.

Gigante regained his chance and rejoined the pack on the 18.5km Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña (Category 2, average gradient 3%) climb.

"The long, gradual climb reduced the group to about a third of the original peloton, which split further on the descent. But Mireia [Benito] and Julie did a great job of closing the gap."

The final climb of the 114-km stage was 3.4 km and averaged 7.9%. It climbed to the fortress of La Patin in the Pyrenean town of Jaca, the finish line of the pivotal GC stage of the eight-day Spanish Tour.

"I got to the front early on the last climb so I could ride at my own pace and keep a good position. I didn't have my power meter with me anymore because I switched bikes, but I tried to set a solid, albeit not maxed out, tempo. In the end, the other climbers dictated the pace and I was just trying to keep up."

As Vollaring moved to the front of the lead group and began to pick up the pace with about 2km to go, riders like Cassia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Mavi Garcia (Jaco-Alula) pulled away, but Gigante jumped the gap and held on a little longer

She stayed on.

She finally pulled away with 1.3 km to go, losing contact with the leading trio of Demi Vollering (SD Work Pro Time), Yara Castellaine (Phoenix-Desseuninck), and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).

Gigante eventually held on to fifth place, 41 seconds behind stage winner and race leader Volering, 13 seconds behind second- and third-place finishers Castellaine and Longo Borghini, and 2 seconds behind FDJ-Suez leader Evita Mujic.

As a result, Gigante, who shortened his contract with Movistar and moved to AG Insurance Suredal in 2024, moved up 15 places in the overall standings. This was because Gigante was caught in a crosswind on stage 4 and was one of the riders expected to have a strong overall result.

There are still two important opportunities left for climbers and overall contenders: the summit finish of stage 6, the flat of stage 7, and the climb to the finish in Madrid on Sunday.

"I am very grateful for the hard work of my teammates, both today and this week.