UCI Road World Championships: Zoe Bäckstedt destroys competition in junior women’s TT

This article originally appeared on Velo News

Nobody could get near Zoe Backstedt (Great Britain) as she obliterated her rivals in the junior TT at the UCI Road World Championships.

Backstedt completed the 14.1km course around Wollongong in a time of 18:26.78, a whopping 1:35 ahead of second place Justyna Czapla (Germany). The Belgian rider Febe Jooris rounded out the podium a further 13 seconds back.

Backstedt was pipped to the junior TT title by 11 seconds in Bruges last season, but there was to be no repeat for the rider who is set to step into the pro ranks with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB next season.

The 17-year-old laid down a huge marker at the halfway point, putting over 50 seconds into Czapla already. Backstedt did not rest on her laurels and continued to put the power down to put broad daylight between herself and the riders behind.

How it happened

The riders had an early start to the day with Hannah Kunz the first rider down the ramp shortly after 9:30 a.m. The German set a strong benchmark for the following riders with a time that would ultimately see her finish just outside the top 10 by the end of the day.

Kunz had a short wait in the hotseat before Isabel Sharpe (Great Britain) ousted her from the top spot. From then on, it was a case of small margins with only a few seconds, and sometimes less than a second separating those at the top of the standings.

Few of the riders had a chance to make it to the stage before they saw their fastest time beaten with the times tumbling constantly. Czapla and Backstedt were the final two riders down the ramp, setting off for their effort two minutes apart.

Czapla came through to topple the fastest time at the opening check, which had been held for Anna van der Meiden (Netherlands) for most of the morning, by two seconds. However, her position at the top of the time check didn’t last long as Backstedt rolled through with a 50-second advantage on the German.

Czepla managed to increase her gap by the finish line to oust Jooris by 13 seconds, but Backstedt was already looming in the background as she came into the finishing stretch. Czepla barely had time to register her brief period as the fastest rider before the Briton crossed the line.

World Championships WJ - ITT Results

• Time Trial

Results provided by ProCyclingStats.

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