On a course that suited her down to the gritty, uneven ground, Zoe Bäckstedt powered to fifth place at a soaking but sweltering edition of Elmos Dwars door het Hageland.

With just four riders on the start-line, Nastya Kolesava, Maria Martins, Wilma Aintila and Zoe, the petite team took on the race’s 16 off-road sectors with limited resources, but undiminished ambition and spirit.

Given Zoe’s Roubaix flair and Cyclo-cross powess, it was clear that she’d thrive on terrain like this, and she started the day as the designated leader. She explains how the team’s plan unfolded:

“The girls did everything they could to help me stay as fresh as possible leading into the final. Unfortunately, we lost Tata and Nastya earlier in the race than we would have liked, but before this moment they were super strong and they also went back to the car to get some ice on quite a warm day. Even though it was rainy, it was still plus 25 degrees. They really did a good job there, and Wilma was helping me later in the race during the local laps, so then it was all on me in the final.”

In a rare throwback to earlier days of women’s racing, the 124.6 kilometre race was missing live TV coverage and had scarce written updates – making Zoe’s own recap all the more valuable. What sounded like a “chilled” race might be up for debate for anyone without Roubaix grit pulsing their veins:

“For the majority of the race today, it was reasonably chilled, I think. Of course, it was chaotic leading into each sector, but I had some good help and managed to be top twenty every time into all of the sectors, especially in the first laps. Then, basically everything started happening on the final local lap [of 25km]. You had a really long sector of gravel and then a really steep climb afterwards – it was a high pace all the way on that gravel sector until basically the end of the race [final 5km].”

The race finished atop the cobbled citadel climb in Diest – 600m long with mild 4-5% gradients, but a deceptively punishing, leg-sapping ascent all the same. A hairpin at 400m to go, followed by a series of sharp corners, led riders into the heart of the fortress. Zoe entered the tricky hairpin in ninth, caught behind traffic and slipping on the rain-slicked cobbles. She clawed back ground where she could – sixth with 300m to go as the top ten stretched into single file, then surging into fifth before the final turn onto smoother tarmac. Unfortunately by then, winner Wiebes (SDW) and the podium had already ridden clear. She remains pragmatic about the powerful performance, however.

“I’m very satisfied with my race, I think. I really wish I could have done a little bit better, maybe a podium would have been nice, but I got squeezed coming into the final climb. There were a few corners, maybe one kilometre before the finish, that were quite small and then it was just impossible to move up until the climb. I moved up as far as I could, but it was really fast and the first four had already gone up the road, so I was a little bit further behind in that moment. Also, there were some super slippery corners because of the rain and the street cobbles, but I’m happy with the outcome. It was a good day and we also had a good day as a team – we all made some further steps forward together and individually.”