Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) became the youngest winner ever of the Baloise Ladies Tour as she claimed overall general classification victory on stage 5, while Martina Fidanza (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) claimed the final sprint.
The stage witnessed a chaotic finish as a huge crash occurred ahead of the finishing straight, involving Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic-PostNL) and a number of other riders. However, Team Visma–Lease a Bike as Nienke Veenhoven (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) laid down a powerful lead-out for Fidanza.
Fidanza beat Barbara Guarischi (Team SD Worx - Protime) to second place, while Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) finished third.
Bäckstedt was not active in the final sprint; however, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto had carefully orchestrated the day's racing. An early breakaway contained 21st placed Mackenzie Coupland (Liv AlUla Jayco Women's Continental Team), who at a 56-second deficit in the general standings moved into the virtual leader's jersey for much of the day.
However, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, aided by Team Picnic-PostNL, controlled the gap and navigated Bäckstedt safely into the lead group.
Scarlett Souren (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) made a bold attack within the final 7km, but it was brought home with 2km remaining, setting the race up for the final sprint.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
"Super hectic, I think more hectic than I imagined," Bäckstedt said, describing the race after the finish. "I think the rain brought a lot of that tension in the peloton, but once you stopped around halfway, then it got flowing a little bit better. And then it was a little bit more enjoyable."
Bäckstedt was aware of the threat of a breakaway to her overall race lead. "Yeah, for sure, there was some danger with the breakaway, but it was controlled nicely and came back to a sprint."
"I think we had two generation riders, so we weren't as strong as other teams with full WorldTour trains," Bäckstedt said of their reluctance to control the final sprint. "In the end, we had to gamble a little, and thankfully, it paid off. Otherwise, I think we would have started to help out."
She was also close to the final straight crash, 'Yeah, I was next to it, and in the sprint, when you're going so fast, you don't really see what happened," she said. "But I really just hope everyone is alright. It sounded, and from my side vision, it looked awful. So yeah, I wish everyone the best."
Bäckstedt described her double stage win yesterday as her key achievement at the race, but continued, "I think the whole week has been good. I've enjoyed racing. It's been some good also some good learning steps for me, and, yeah, helping, helping the others in the team as well. So yeah, it's just been a fun week. I've really enjoyed."
Looking ahead to her developing form as a rider, she said, "We'll see what the future brings. I think maybe you're not going to see me winning at the top of Alpe d'Huez, but yeah, it's maybe some flatter races I couldn't do well at."
She was, however, clear that she would be riding cyclocross in the winter. "Oh, 100% I will be there," she said.
Peter Stuart has been the editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.
Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.
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