Up-and-coming British racer Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) took a breakthrough first professional victory in stage 1 of the Simac Ladies Tour, a 10.1km time trial starting and finishing in Gennep.
Clocking a time of 12:40, Bäckstedt beat Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) by seven seconds and multiple former World TT Champion Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) by eight seconds.
“I really surprised myself, I came just to have some fun and see what I could do today, and apparently that was enough to win the stage, so I’m really happy," Bäckstedt said when her victory was certain.
"I was just pushing a lot, and I had my dad in the car behind me, telling me - keep pushing, come on, you can do it, keep your head down."
Describing the out-and-back course, Bäckstedt added that “There were a lot of straights and that was really good for me."
"I think the course was perfect, a little bit of cornering, a bit of technical and some time to take a breather and recover, then full gas again out of each corner."
Looking ahead, she pointed out that “This week is also a good preparation for my cyclo cross season. Hopefully I can do some more good results in the coming week."
"I’m in the yellow jersey now, so a little bit more visible than normal. Maybe I don’t get away or anything, but I will have some fun on the bike and just enjoy racing in the Netherlands this week."
How it unfolded
The opening time trial of the six-day Dutch stage race was mainly an out-and-back course on a road to the east of Gennep, with a few more technical sections through the town right after the start.
Teniel Campbell (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) set the first real benchmark with 13:19 but only stayed in the hotseat for a few minutes until Nooijen finished in 12:47 to take over in the lead.
Rider after rider could not match that time, with Van Dijk coming just 0.16 seconds short. Top sprinters Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) will have their work cut out in the remaining five stages if they want to move up in GC through time bonuses: Kool finished in 13:22, with Balsamo ten seconds slower.
Dutch ITT champion Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) also slotted in behind her teammate Nooijen with 13:09, but Bäckstedt then took seven seconds off the clock to set the new leading time.
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), wearing her new European ITT champion’s skinsuit, finished in 12:51. Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished in 13:04 minutes which turned out to be the fastest time behind Kopecky.
Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) fell short of Bäckstedt’s time with 13:09, and so did Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) who clocked 13:13. Ally Wollaston (AG-Soudal) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) were the last two starters, and neither of them could threaten Bäckstedt who could celebrate her first professional victory. During her final kilometre, Wiebes even had to evade an everyday cyclist who had somehow got on the race course: fortunately, neither of them crashed.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
