"Give me two years, maybe three, and that'll be there" - Zoe Bäckstedt is confident about finding her way to the top of the cycling world

It's no wonder Zoe Bäckstedt wears the prodigy title in the women peloton. After all the 19-year-old was virtually untouchable among the juniors and, after just one year with U23s, she already grew old for that category too. Just ahead of her grand tour debut at La Vuelta Femenina, CyclingWeekly caught up with the Canyon//SRAM rider to chat about how the season has been going so far.

"You can go to a bike race and be nervous and feel a little bit a little bit scared in the bunch and then you can go to the next race and be like, 'I didn't enjoy the last one, I'm going to just completely change how I look at it, I'm going to just ride it as if as if it was an hour CX race' for me, that's how I look at it, just go full gas at every moment you and just ride your bike, ride it like you own the road, basically."

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The 19-year-old wasn’t in fact far from joining the winning move at Roubaix and says she continues to watch the likes of Lotte Kopecky closely to learn as much from the best in the women peloton as possible.

"Everything she does is something I look at and think 'Oh, I'd love to do that'," she says. "But give me two years, maybe three, and that'll be there... There's a lot of riders that are just next level at the moment and something special on the bike. Even within our team, we've got so many riders that I look at and wish I could also be at that stage."

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Dorian Godon continues AG2R's excellent start to season with victory ahead of Andrea Vendrame in one-two finish at Tour de Romandie

Preliminary startlist Giro d'Italia 2024 with Tadej Pogacar, Geraint Thomas, Filippo Ganna, Biniam Girmay, Nairo Quintana, Julian Alaphilippe and Tim Merlier