Bäckstedt powers to U23 Cyclo-Cross world title in gripping victory

British cycling star Zoe Bäckstedt continued her meteoric rise with victory in Sunday’s U23 race at the 2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in the Czech Republic town of Tábor to add to the silver medal that she earned in Friday’s Mixed Team Relay.

Bäckstedt’s parents were both professional cyclists with the 19-year-old from Wales hitting the headlines initially when she powered to a junior gold medal on the road at the 2021 World Championships in Flanders as well as European junior golds in cyclo-cross and on the track.

Further world junior golds followed in 2022 across all three disciplines with Bäckstedt earning European golds at the U23 level in cyclo-cross and road time trial heading into this exciting 2024 cycling year.

After signing a three-year deal with CANYON//SRAM Racing leading into the 2023/2024 cyclo-cross season, Bäckstedt headed into the Tábor event looking to improve on her U23 silver medal from the 2023 event.

First of all, she partnered with Cat Ferguson, Anna Kay, Oscar Amey, Corran Carrick-Anderson and Cameron Mason in Friday’s Mixed Team Relay to claim a silver medal as junior French rider Aubin Sparfel held off Mason in a thrilling final lap and sprint to the line with Belgium third.

This time around in front of 35,000 fans, Luxembourg rider Marie Schreiber went out fast in Sunday’s U23 race to get a jump on the field however Bäckstedt took the lead in the mud and began to ride clear.

With one lap remaining, the Briton was ahead by over a minute leaving her to celebrate her victory with her father Magnus as she passed the pit area for the final time as she won by 44 seconds from popular home rider Kristyna Zemanová with Dutch rider Leonie Bentveld in bronze.

Bäckstedt said: “I’m over the moon. I was a little nervous coming into this one. It has been a really good season and I just wanted to top it off with this. I’m head to toe in mud, there were points where you were almost stopping on the course into the mud. It just made it so much fun.”

Much like her talented male counterparts Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert, Bäckstedt’s prowess in switching seamlessly between cycling disciplines bodes well for her future elite championship aspirations.

Header image: Zoe BACKSTEDT (GBR) dominating the U23 Women’s Race and crowning herself the 2024 U23 women CX World Champion at the 2024 UCI CX World Championships in Tabor, Szechia on February 4, 2024. Credit: Kristof Ramon / Red Bull Content Pool