Zoe Bäckstedt finished third on the general classification and won the best young rider classification following the final stage of the Simac Ladies Tour today in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The CANYON//SRAM Racing rider achieved her best-ever Women’s World Tour result at the six-day stage race, with a stage win, three days leading the general classification and leading the youth classification from start to finish.

It was a dominant performance from Zoe, made more impressive by the fact that she achieved the results largely alone after her teammates were forced to withdraw early in the tour due to illness, injury, and mishaps. After a stunning individual time trial win, Zoe held the overall lead for three stages. After a battle from several teams and just a handful of seconds separating the top three, Zoe firmly held her spot on the final podium. She won the youth classification by fifty-three seconds.

Zoe Bäckstedt: “It was a tough final stage. Everyone knew that SD (Worx) would try to take another stage win for Lotte (Kopecky) to take GC. It was a case of trying to react every time Lotte went, and you knew that, most likely, Frankziska (Koch) would be in the wheel. In the end, Lotte won the sprint and took the overall GC, but it was a fun race!”

“I’m so happy with the results. This week was tough physically and mentally for me. It’s not easy to race four days on the road alone and try to defend GC, but the end result was worth the challenge. Taking my first WWT stage win means so much; hopefully, there are more to come.”

“To finish the road season like this gives me a lot of confidence. Knowing I have the form and the strength to make it at the top of the road field means I need to warm up my technical skills, and I’ll be looking forward to the first cyclo-cross race. But first, I’ll take a small break.”

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