Urska Zigart leads as team leader in grand tours: "The team sees a rough diamond in me"
Urska Zigart has found her place at AG Insurance-Soudal. The 29-year-old Slovenian rider made the switch last winter—after four years riding in Australia for Liv AlUla Jayco—to AG Insurance-Soudal and extended her contract with the team last week. "The team sees a rough diamond in me," she tells the WielerFlits camera.
Zigart isn’t a rider we see all year round, but as soon as the circuits get tougher, the Slovenian surfaces. In her early pro years with BTC City Ljubljana and Liv AlUla Jayco, we often saw Zigart climb well in the Tour de Suisse (once 7th and once 9th), but real breakthroughs to the top were still missing then.
Last year, however, the Slovenian showed much more consistency with her new team and came closer to victory more often. She missed the overall win at the Tour de Romandie by seven seconds, while at Oropa in the Trofeo Tessile & Mode Donne she stood on the podium behind Marlen Reusser and Elisa Longo Borghini. She also made the top ten in a Grand Tour for the first time in her career, finishing ninth in the Giro d’Italia.
What has changed for Zigart over the past year? "AG Insurance found a good way to develop me. I always think back to a quote from last year, when they called me a rough diamond. Even though I ride in the peloton for a long time, you keep rediscovering yourself. Here, in this team, they see me differently than I see myself, and they have been proven right."
"Look, when I joined GreenEdge, no one really knew who I was. Except that I was Tadej Pogacar’s girlfriend. In those years, I probably stagnated a bit. It was very nice and cozy in that team, but maybe I was a bit boxed in. When I came to AG Insurance, the management immediately said: we see your weaknesses, but we also see what you’re really good at. I hope I can repay them that trust."
Team Leader in Vuelta and Giro
For Zigart, 2026 will be a year of Grand Tours. In the coming weeks, the Slovenian rides an Italian block with Strade Bianche, the Trofeo Oro, and the Giro dell’Appennino, but then the first mountain stage follows to get in shape for La Vuelta Femenina, where she and Sarah Gigante will aim for a strong GC. After that, the Giro d’Italia comes quickly, where Belgian stage talent Lore De Schepper will also join the team.
The team is especially aiming high for that last race. A podium with Gigante, De Schepper, or Zigart is the goal. Zigart herself stays cautious about bold claims. "It’s hard to say what might happen in the Giro. We have such a strong team there, but we know that as a collective we’re stronger. In the mountains and on the Finestre, we can play team tactics with Sarah, Lore, and me. Maybe I can improve on last year’s placing by a few spots. Of course, I hope to say: I can win it, but so many factors have to come together in a Grand Tour. And that’s not just on paper. A lot can happen."
"As a team, we’ve shown that—if we work together and back the team leader—we can achieve great things. If I am the team leader, I will do everything to make AG Insurance-Soudal’s skin as tough to take as possible. That feels like a big step and responsibility, but last year I showed I can do it, when I missed out by eight seconds in Romandie... So I will keep targeting other races to perform well there as well."
