Bäckstedt's Flanders Breakthrough: Roubaix Winner's Daughter Finishes Fifth After Koppenberg "Goosebumps"
Zoe Bäckstedt has been tipped as a future star of the cobbled Classics for years. On Sunday at the Tour of Flanders Women, the young Welsh rider turned that promise into reality with a stunning fifth-place finish — the best result of her road career and a performance that announced her arrival among cycling's elite. Riding for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Bäckstedt was part of the lead group over the fearsome Koppenberg and held her nerve through the brutal final kilometres to finish inside the top five at a Monument.
"Going over the Koppenberg, such a hard climb, with the front group — that really gave me a few goosebumps," Bäckstedt said in a beaming post-race interview. "I knew I could be competitive over the climbs, and that put me in the right headspace. My teammates helped position me perfectly into the climbs, and from there I just went full gas." The Koppenberg, with its vicious 22% gradient on crumbling cobblestones, has destroyed the hopes of far more experienced riders. That Bäckstedt crested it among the leaders speaks volumes about her raw power and fearlessness.
The Bäckstedt name carries enormous weight in the cobbled Classics. Her father, Magnus Bäckstedt, won Paris-Roubaix in 2004 in one of the most celebrated upsets in the race's history, and he has been a guiding presence in Zoe's career since she first burst onto the junior scene with world championship titles in cyclo-cross and on the road. The family's affinity for cobblestones appears to be genetic — Zoe's power output on the pavé sectors at Flanders was among the highest in the peloton, according to post-race data.
Bäckstedt was ultimately unable to follow Demi Vollering's race-winning attack on the Oude Kwaremont, but she stayed composed in the chase group and used her strength on the flat roads to hold her position. Fifth at the Tour of Flanders — behind only Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Puck Pieterse, and Lotte Kopecky — places Bäckstedt in extraordinary company and confirms her as a rider who belongs at the very front of women's cycling's biggest races.
The timing of this breakthrough could not be more poignant. With Paris-Roubaix Femmes coming on Saturday — the race her father famously conquered 22 years ago — Bäckstedt has a chance to write the next chapter of one of cycling's great family stories. The flat cobbles of northern France arguably suit her power profile even better than the Flemish bergs, and Canyon-SRAM will arrive at the Hell of the North with a rider who now has the confidence of a Monument top five behind her.
"I'm not thinking about the family history too much," Bäckstedt said with a smile that suggested otherwise. "But obviously growing up hearing my dad's stories about Roubaix, watching the videos of 2004 — it's in the blood, isn't it? Saturday is going to be special whatever happens." The next generation of cobbled Classics racing has arrived, and she is making goosebumps of her own.