Zoe Bäckstedt on surviving her first Tour and her stage 9 monster pull: ‘I was just pain face, go for it as hard as possible’

At one point during the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes, Zoe Bäckstedt thought her day was effectively over.

The 21-year-old had been riding on the front for Canyon//SRAM, trying to reduce the group and isolate the rivals of Kasia Niewiadoma, when she reached what felt like her physical limit.

“I said, ‘I’m done, I’m done. I can’t, I can’t go anymore,’” Bäckstedt recalled on the Domestique Hotseat podcast.

Then information started coming through from the team. Riders were being dropped behind, including some who would normally be expected to survive much longer than Backstedt on a climb, giving her a reason to keep pushing despite feeling she had already reached her limit.

“I was like, okay, I continue going.”

By that point, Bäckstedt was barely processing what was happening around her, with the effort leaving little room to think about anything beyond continuing to turn the pedals.

“I heard Kasia one time and I heard the team car, but otherwise I think I blocked everything,” she said. “I was just pain face, go for it as hard as possible.”

Only later did she fully appreciate just how deep she had gone. Her 20 minute power was around 20 watts higher than her previous personal best, producing a career best effort at the end of nine punishing days of racing.

“I’m not going to give you the exact number, but let’s just say all time 20 minute. And what can I give you as a number? Plus 350,” she said.

“It was 20 watts higher than my previous 20 minute best.”

Bäckstedt had barely looked at her computer while setting those numbers, only glancing down twice during the entire effort.

“I saw 377, 366 were my two numbers. And that’s it. One on the climb, one on the flat. I don’t know how I did it. I’m shocked by myself.”

Niewiadoma had been encouraging her from behind, and for Bäckstedt that provided the motivation to continue after she had already told the team she could not go any harder.

“It was my motivation,” she said.

“Seeing stars at the top, anything for the leader.”

That effort summed up a Tour in which Backstedt was often asked to put her own ambitions aside for Niewiadoma and Antonia Niedermaier.

While she has already enjoyed leadership opportunities of her own, her job in France was markedly different.

“For me, I was on bodyguard duties for the whole week, basically,” Backstedt said. “Just protect, do what I can, keep everyone in position, be the first into the corner if I have to.”

Bäckstedt had already raced some of the biggest events on the calendar before making her Tour debut, but quickly discovered that the intensity of racing in France was on another level.

“It’s definitely the hardest of all the races,” she said.

“The Tour just has an extra vibe around it. Everyone is here in the best condition they could possibly be in, all fighting for the same thing.”

Much of that difference came down to positioning, with riders fighting for every metre of road from the start of the stage.

“Everyone is just going 120% into every single corner to be at the front,” she said.

“They’re there to fight for every single corner, for every single metre of road. It’s like a constant battle between every single rider for every single corner.”

Bäckstedt did get opportunities to chase results of her own, most notably in the individual time trial, where the former world champion against the clock arrived with realistic ambitions of reaching the podium.

She eventually finished fourth, and while that would represent an impressive result for most 21 year olds on their Tour debut, Bäckstedt initially struggled to take much satisfaction from it.

“For sure I hoped for a podium,” she said. “It’s just how I’m built. I’m built with high expectations for myself.”

Bäckstedt was close to the fastest time at an intermediate checkpoint, making the time she eventually lost in the second half of the course particularly frustrating.

“I was questioning myself. How did I lose so much time?”

As the remaining contenders completed their efforts, Bäckstedt slipped to fourth and saw a potential Tour podium disappear.

“I wanted so badly to do better, to do a podium in the Tour,” she said.

“Those last riders come in and go faster again and dropping down to fourth. Yeah, it hurts.”

A phone call with her sister helped put the disappointment into perspective.

“We were just chatting about everything other than cycling,” Bäckstedt said. “It completely took my mind away from the race and the disappointment that I had.”

By the time she went down for dinner, seeing how pleased her teammates were with the performance had also helped put the result into perspective.

“I’ve done a good ride, but I just had more expectations and I wanted to do better,” she said.

“But I’m 21, my first Tour de France, my first time throughout the Tour. I will take it.”

Bäckstedt believes the Tour can continue to grow, but warned that a longer race would also need more room for recovery.

Her preference is not necessarily for fewer hard stages. Instead, she would like to see at least one straightforward sprint day added to the route.

“The men’s races have all these sprint stages where it’s riding easy. It’s controlling the race until the final. We also need that.”

She would still welcome another major mountain stage.

“I’m more than happy to do one more mountain pass. Put in Alpe d’Huez again, put in any climb, but just please give us one more easy day.”

Should the Tour eventually grow to 12 days or even two weeks, Bäckstedt says a rest day would become essential.

“If it goes up to 12 days or even two weeks, then we need a rest day. It’s not possible for us to do two weeks of riding without a day off or an easy ride.”

For all the difficulty of her first Tour, Bäckstedt came away wanting more.

“I would do it again. Definitely. It was great fun.”

Although not straight away.

“No, not tomorrow, please. Give me a while to recover.”

Listen to the full Domestique Hotseat episode with Zoe Bäckstedt 👇