Zoe Bäckstedt’s classics season gets underway at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad tomorrow, the British multi-disciplinary star having returned to racing over the winter following a serious training crash in November which left her with multiple fractures and a new sense of faith in her use of a helmet.
At the time, the 21-year-old, who won the U23 time trial at the World Championships in Rwanda and is expected to continue to translate her talent to the pro ranks, revealed she had suffered hand and wrist fractures in the crash and was left believing her helmet had “saved my life”.
Bäckstedt urged other riders to wear a helmet too and, ahead of Opening Weekend, told the BBC she fears what could have happened if she had not been wearing one.
Zoe Backstedt’s cracked helmet (Image Credit: Instagram/Zoe Backstedt)
“Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t had it on, maybe I wouldn’t be here today, the way the helmet broke into so many pieces,” she said. “When I crashed I didn’t even realise what was happening, because click your fingers and it was over. I stood back up and had the immediate aftershock of, ‘this isn’t good’.
“Everywhere I go, I try to wear a helmet, even if it’s just two kilometres away, it can save you so much if you’re in an unfortunate accident.”
When the crash happened, back in November, Bäckstedt shared photos online of her badly damaged Red Bull-branded Giro helmet and thanked the lid brand for its protection.
“One thing I know for sure, my helmet saved my life. Thank you Giro Cycling. Wear a helmet, please,” she wrote.
Bäckstedt’s winter of cyclocross was disrupted by the crash, however she did return to action in the post-Christmas period and reeled off a string of top-10 finishes at UCI World Cup events before finishing seventh at the World Championships.
> Perhaps my helmet did save my life — but that doesn’t mean you need to wear one
The daughter of 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt and 1998 British national road race champion Megan Hughes, who also rides alongside sister Elynor in the pro peloton, Zoe’s 2026 road season began with a strong showing at the UAE Tour, including a third-place on stage one and finishing second in the youth classification.
2022 Zoe Backstedt UCI Road World Championships © Zac Willims SWpix.com (t-a Photography Hub Ltd) – 1 (1).jpeg
One of Bäckstedt’s biggest goals remains a couple of years down the line, the Welsh rider telling the BBC her “obvious dream” is to be Olympic champion in Los Angeles in 2028.
“That’s one in the future that would be a very big goal of mine,” she said. “I want to go for Los Angeles 2028, I want to give my everything to be on the start line and go for a podium, that would be pretty cool to do. If I hadn’t been sick in 2024, I would have liked to have also been on the start line [in Paris], it just wasn’t my year.
“That was hard to accept but it just made me hungrier to be on the start line in LA.”
For now, a classics season beckons, starting with Omloop tomorrow.