Zoe Bäckstedt is in the best road racing form of her life. The 21-year-old is no stranger to being at the front of bike races and podiums, being a WorldTour winner, a national champion, and a junior and under-23 world champion, but this April she seems a level above.
In her 16 one-day WorldTour races up to this month, Backstedt's best finished was 15th at last year's Paris-Roubaix Femmes. No bad thing for someone in her development phase. But this year there has been a marked improvement. At Dwars door Vlaanderen, Bäckstedt finished fourth, before fifth place at the Tour of Flanders last Sunday, her best ever result in a Monument.
