ZOE CLAIMS A CAREER-BEST RESULT ON STAGE 1 OF UAE TOUR WOMEN

Zoe Bäckstedt delivered a sensational surprise in the final of stage 1 at UAE Tour Women, expertly slicing through the sprint mayhem to claim an exceptional third place.

It’s a standout result for the 21-year-old; her first top-three finish on a WorldTour road race stage. Her previous podiums at the sport’s highest level have come against the clock, with time trial wins at the Simac Ladies Tour.

“⁠I didn’t expect this 3rd place at all! Of course, I wasn’t the designated sprinter for the day, but I’m happy to take my first WorldTour road podium!”

The 112 kilometre opening stage was widely viewed as a sprint opportunity for Italian fast-woman Chiara Consonni, and even inside the final 1km, the team were preparing for exactly that scenario. Tiffany Cromwell, Maria (Tata) Martins, Chiara and Zoe were grouped together towards the left-hand front of the bunch. With many riders in the peloton contesting their first race of the season, and on the infamously chaotic roads of the UAE, the makings were there for a particularly hectic finish; the risk of becoming separated was especially high.

Tiffany held second wheel in the peloton as the race thundered under the 1km banner, but the team was no longer assembled as a unit. A little further back, Zoe launched a series of powerful accelerations up the left, leap-frogging from wheel to wheel for shelter. With UAE Team ADQ still winding up their lead-out and not yet fully occupying the left-hand barriers, there was space for Zoe to keep advancing – power permissible. Maria and Chiara tried to move up on the right-hand side of the road, but with extra ground to cover, it was Zoe who found herself best positioned to take on the sprint. She threaded through the final cluster of riders, found clear road, and edged past Coles-Lyster (HPH) on the line, further establishing herself as a rising talent that’s now consistently delivering at the top level.

Zoe talks through how it went:

“⁠⁠It was a bit chaotic in the final, and Tata and I lost Chiara at a bad moment – the original plan was to sprint for her! In the end, I found a few small gaps to be able to get through to the front, and I just had to sprint! It was very much an ‘in the moment’ kind of thing, but when I knew I could get through I decided to go for it. The first thing I thought when I crossed the line was ‘oh, I hope I threw my bike hard enough’ because it was close for third place!”

It’s been a case of one thing straight into the next for Zoe. She arrived to the Middle East carrying strong momentum after wrapping up her winter off-road season just days earlier with a seventh-place finish at the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships. Before that, she spent two weeks at the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto training camp in Gandia, accumulating road kilometres and fine-tuning the lead-out train alongside Maria and Chiara.

The signs were there, but a stage podium at the UAE Tour Women was still a welcome surprise.

“Today’s result quite possibly exceeded my expectations,” Zoe said. “I knew after the Maasmechelen/Hoogerheide weekend [Zoe finished fourth at UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Hoogerheide] that my legs were good, and even after Worlds, I’m happy with how they could feel in the end!”

After one of the fastest stages in the four editions of UAE Tour Women, where 112km was covered in under two and a half hours, Zoe now leads the young rider classification by four seconds. She will pull on the white jersey for Stage two, a longer but still flat and exposed 145km route around the outskirts of Dubai. While the forecasted wind is not extreme, the stage features a few more changes in direction compared to day one, and across the distinctive UAE landscape, it rarely takes much for conditions to turn the race on its head.

HOW TO FOLLOW 

Stage 2 | Fri, Feb 6 | Dubai – Dubai | 145km | 509m elevation | start: 12:50 – fastest finish: 16:18 GST (13:18 CET).

Stage 3 | Sat, Feb 7 | Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi Marina | 121.3km | 511m elevation | start: 13:30 – fastest finish: 16:21 GST (13:21 CET).

Stage 4 | Sun, Feb 8 | Al Ain – Jebel Hafeet | 156.5km | 1175m elevation | start: 12:25 – fastest finish: 16:17 GST (13:17 CET).

The UAE Tour Women will be broadcast live on TNT Sports, Eurosport, Discovery+, FloBikes and SBS Sport from 11:45 CET onwards every day. You can also follow the race on X using #UAETourWomen and #UCIWWT, as well as through the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto social channels.