WATT WORKS FOR ME ZOE BACKSTEDT

The youngest member of the storied racing family talks about her first pro victory and juggling the demands of road and cross

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You were sidelined for most of the summer with illness. How did you train to return to racing?
Zone 1 rides, as flat as possible, keeping the heart rate low. For the first week, I started with just half an hour a day on the turbo, and slowly progressed from there. When I started to feel stronger, I added 30-40 watts and just kept the chain tight for a few minutes. I'd sometimes do four times four minutes over the space of two hours. By the time I got up to eight minutes and it started to hurt a bit, I knew I was getting stronger.

You won the time trial on the first stage of the Simac Ladies Tour, your first pro win. Was it a target?