BÄCKSTEDT SHINES WITH 5TH IN BELGIUM’S BIGGEST RACE

Although Zoe Bäckstedt has shown phenomenal talent on two wheels since her early junior days, she continues to surprise and impress with every step she takes in performance.

Fresh off her best-ever WorldTour one-day result – 4th at Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen – she reaffirmed her growing classics prowess on Belgium’s biggest cycling day, crossing the line 5th in the esteemed Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Despite the difficulty of the day, “Oh wow, that was super fun” was one of Zoe’s first reactions at the finish. After a moment to gather herself, she added:

“My legs hurt like hell, but it feels amazing to finish fifth at Flanders. I really did not expect that going into the day. I had absolutely no expectations given that it’s the second time I’ve ever raced it, but the first proper time where I’ve been in the condition to actually race at the front. So yeah, fifth is amazing. I had some belief after Wednesday’s race, but to pull this off, I’m really happy.”

Earlier in the race, it was Nastya Kolesava at the front of affairs, placing the team into a breakaway just ahead of the first cobbled sector at kilometre 29. At its peak, her group of six built an advantage of over six minutes on the peloton.

Meanwhile, Zoe stayed perfectly positioned in the main bunch as the race hit the key moments, from the cycling beacon of Oudenaarde to the tricky Molenberg entrance – one of Flanders’ most notorious corners.

As the infamous Koppenberg (0.6km at 9.8%) approached, Zoe, Rosa Klöser, Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Chloé Dygert came together at the front, while Nastya – now solo after distancing her breakaway companions – clung onto a 40-second lead.

It was a true ‘revolving doors’ moment; Nastya slipped back on the brutal cobbled pitches, while Zoe rose to the occasion, powering into a leading group of 20. She reflects:

“I really didn’t expect to be, first of all, in a good position going into the bottom, and then over the top, of the Koppenberg. A few hundred metres before the left turn, I was in the top 30, but I managed to just go around the outside. I was top 15 at the summit, and it was just about hanging on from there.”

As expected in the most prestigious Flemish classic, Zoe had to grit her teeth and dig deep repeatedly in the final 40km, demonstrating her formidable classics pedigree – something she’s long shown, but had yet to convert into a truly standout result. Not until Wednesday, anyway.

Although distanced on the Kruisberg – the seventh of nine official climbs – Zoe’s group rejoined just as Vollering [TFS] launched on the gentle yet leg-sapping slopes that followed. True to form, Zoe instinctively went with the short-lived move in one seamless transition from chasing to being chased.

A brief lull settled over the leading group of 13, giving Zoe a few precious minutes to recover before the longest climb of the race – Oude Kwaremont (2km at 4.5%) with 19km to go. Zoe spoke about the electric atmosphere and roaring fans on the penultimate climb:

“I couldn’t hear anything – there was screaming left, right and centre into my ear. It was super cool and I heard my name a lot of times, and that really helped to give me some extra energy. I think Kwaremont was definitely a lot harder than I expected – it’s been a while since I rode it like this. You can ride it in training and be fresh, but when you do it in a race after all those climbs, it hurts 10 times as much.”

She crested in 8th, part of a quartet contesting 4th, keeping her hopes of Ronde van Vlaanderen success very much alive. She then stayed in contact with Kopecky (SDW) and three UAE-ADQ riders over the punishing Paterberg (0.4km at 9.4%) – the final ascent of the day.

“I was lucky that there were three from UAE with no-one in front, so they were pulling a lot to try and bring the top three back. I was really just hanging on up those last climbs. Kwaremont and Paterberg are a deathly combination.”

With 10km remaining, Vollering held an unassailable 50-second lead, while the remaining two podium places were just 15 seconds up the road. Entering the final 3km, Zoe’s group had yet to make meaningful inroads, setting up a drag race for 4th.

“We could see them [second and third place-getters, Pieterse and Ferrand-Prévot] ahead – Longo Borghini was pulling on the front and Kopecky was second. I was sat in third, but I messed up a little bit in the last 300–400 metres when the UAE riders started to come around. They launched, and I went a little bit too late. I managed to overtake one rider from UAE, but I didn’t quite get past Lotte [Kopecky] in the final metres. Still, sprinting against Lotte is pretty cool in itself. I was really just focused on the sprint, and not much else. It’s the end of a long race, but there’s still so much to think about in that final kilometre.”

It was only fitting that Zoe would cap her classy Ronde van Vlaanderen performance with an equally impressive sprint, narrowly missing 4th but taking real satisfaction from a top-5 finish at such a monumental event. She concludes:

“I think it’s a race that I can do well at in the future. Maybe something that I would look to target, but we also have riders in the team that can podium at events like this so it really just depends. I’d like to also continue my role as a helper, but I know that maybe one year I could win this.”