In 2022, Zoe Backstedt won the junior women's Tour of Flanders. The following year saw her start the elite race for the first time, finishing five minutes down in 56th place. For the last two seasons, she has passed on the Flemish classic to focus on Paris-Roubaix, but lined up again on Sunday and surprised herself with a fifth place – and with how much fun she had in the race.
"I really didn't expect to be in that front group up over those climbs. I wasn't quite there after Kwaremont, but to be in that second group with a few Flanders titles to their names in that group [three for Lotte Kopecky, two for Elisa Longo Borghini], I'm super happy, and I couldn't have asked for much more. I had a great day. It was just fun," said Backstedt after the race.
In the lead-up to the Ronde, Backstedt had won the group sprint for fourth place in Dwars door Vlaanderen, and that result gave her the confidence she needed.
"Knowing that I could be there over the climbs with a good feeling, it put me in a good headspace today. I had some help from the girls to position me into the climbs. And going over the Koppenberg, such a hard climb, with the front group, that really gave me a few goosebumps," Backstedt explained.
After the climbs, the Welsh woman was part of a chase group of five trying to reel in Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech), who ended up sprinting for second place behind solo winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez).
"It was three from UAE, and me and Lotte. We could have maybe worked better at some points, but we were all dead at that point," Backstedt described the run-in to Oudenaarde.
In the sprint, Backstedt came alongside Kopecky on the final metres but just lost out on fourth place. Nevertheless, the result is a boost to her ahead of the highlight of her spring campaign, Paris-Roubaix Femmes – a race where her father won the men's edition in 2004.
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