Stunting and bouncing, young Zoe Bäcksteds fools virtually the entire world's top in opening time trial Ladies Tour

It was supposed to be a pretty exciting race because many top-time trialists were present: Ellen van Dijk, Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes, Riejanne Markus, and Elisa Longo Borghini, for example. The first serious time was from Lieke Nooijen: 12.47. The rest could start focusing on this. Van Dijk was close right away. The Lidl-Trek lady was one second behind! What bad luck for the veteran.

Dutch champion Markus disappointed a bit: she lost 22 seconds to Nooijen, her teammate. The 22-year-old from Visma | Lease a Bike had been in the hot seat for a while when Charlotte Kool came across the finish line. The sprint star of dsm-firmenich could not match her compatriot's time but kept the damage to a minimum to keep possibilities for the overall victory with the upcoming sprint opportunities.

Surprisingly, it was not one of the names mentioned above, but a 20-year-old British rider faster than Nooijen, Zoe Bäckstedt, clocked 12.40. Kopecky was also slower than the leader, Nooijen and Van Dijk, with 12.51. Longo Borghini was even much slower, losing almost three-quarters of a minute. So many good time trialists, but everyone seemed to be struggling to beat Bäckstedt's time!

Then it was Wiebes's and Chloé Dygert's turn as contenders. The latter had difficulty with the winding course, which was also full of speed bumps. Besides, they had to be careful on the narrow, typical Dutch village streets. Dygert had to admit half a minute, and Wiebes was not fast enough either. And so Bäckstedt could celebrate, she also took the first leader's jersey.