The path that any athlete travels to the top of their sport is straightforward.
The most evangelical of adherents to their chosen regimens are still liable to succumb to the distress of injury hell.
As Australian cyclist Sarah Gigante prepares for the women's road race at the UCI World Championships on Saturday night, she can be certain that she knows this as much as anyone.
Gigante had just returned home to Spain after competing in her first race since the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, a 403-day absence from the professional peloton due to a badly broken femur.
"It has been a really unlucky streak," Gigante understatedly told ABC Sport.
At Gigante's return race, the Faun Tour Femmes, half her AG Insurance-Soudal team was eliminated by crashes, the vulnerability of riders competing at lightning speeds with minimal safety equipment laid painfully bare.
Justine Ghekiere broke her knee on stage one in a crash that also eliminated SD Worx-Protime pair Mischa Bredewold and New Zealand's Mikayla Harvey who suffered concussion.
Following a season in which she claimed sixth place overall at the Tour de France Femmes, backing up a third-place finish featuring two stage wins and Queen of the Mountains victory at that year's Giro d'Italia women, Gigante crashed during a training ride.
Gigante is fresh off signing a new contract that will keep her at AG Insurance-Soudal until the end of 2027, a testament to their continued belief in the young Aussie, even if Gigante has before said that following her many setbacks, she has had to be rebooted and is now a new version of herself.