Zoe Backstedt is gearing up to defend her Junior World Championship title that she won in Flanders last season. She demonstrated her form by winning the Watersley Challenge juniors race last weekend, winning the overall title as well as all three stages and the mountains classification jersey.
In conversation with Cycling weekly, she says, “they’re going to be watching me” indicating a hard competition is waiting for her in Australia. She continues “I know girls from the other teams will be going into it now and going, 'yeah, Zoe is the one to watch. They know that, and I know that they’re all going to be watching me. Without sounding full of myself, you saw the way I performed last weekend,” Bäckstedt said.
As far as preparations go, she has already accomplished more than enough. With her confidence in her abilities, she is sure to defend the title again. “I’ve already done the Tour of the Pyrenees with the team. I got to see how everyone was pre-race in the days leading into it, then how everyone makes recovery and how the rest of the thing is just planned,” she concluded.