No one can touch Zoe Bäckstedt as a Junior rider. The newly 18-year-old Brit followed up her dominant time trial victory earlier in the week by successfully defending her Junior road championship Saturday at Wollongong 2022 in New South Wales, Australia. Bäckstedt, whose father Magnus won the 2004 Paris-Rouabaix, will be Alison Jackson’s teammate next year at EF Education-TIBCO-SVB.
You can watch the Wollongong 2022 UCI Road World Championships at FloBikes.
The Course
The Junior women would complete four laps of the 17-km city circuit, for a total of 67.2 km. Each circuit contained the 1.1-km, 8.6 percent Mount Pleasant climb.
#Wollongong2022 WJ
🚩 Wollongong
🏁 Wollongong
🚴🏻♂️ 67 Km
Weather: 🌧 16°C, light rain
Route: https://t.co/mBJKlDK1i4 pic.twitter.com/sxGnNLtCGK— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) September 23, 2022
The Canadian contigent was Anabelle Thomas, Eloise Camire, Kiara Lylyk and Pénélope Primeau. In 2018, Canada’s Simone Boilard took the Junior women’s bronze.
The pace was high on Lap 1 and all the Canadians were dropped on Mount Pleasant. To celebrate her birthday, Bäckstedt attacked on the descent.
France tried to organize the chase and a Czech made an effort to bridge over.
With Lap 3 coming to an end, non-Bäckstedt riders started to vie for the other medals. Eglantine Rayer made a move hoping to get France its first medal of Wollongong 2022. But it would be Dutch rider Nienke Vinke who heard the bell ahead of the peloton. A Swiss and Czech lit out after her with 14 km remaining. However, Rayer reappeared to link up with Vinke on Mount Pleasant.
Vinke left Rayer with 3 km to go but the French rider returned. The Dutch woman led out and Rayer outsprinted her for the silver.
Wollongong 2022 Junior Women’s Road Race
Gold) Zoe Bäckstedt (Great Britain) 1:47:05
Silver) Eglantine Rayer (France) +2:07
Bronze) Nienke Vinke (The Netherlands) s.t.
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