{"id":327899,"date":"2025-12-21T09:17:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327899\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T09:17:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:17:25","slug":"as-long-as-im-on-a-bike-im-happy-zoe-backstedt-is-cycling-weeklys-rider-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327899\/","title":{"rendered":"‘As long as I\u2019m on a bike, I\u2019m happy’ – Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt is Cycling Weekly’s Rider of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dusk is setting in when I connect with Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt<\/a> over video call. She is in Belgium, where it\u2019s early evening and turning gloomy outside; she sits down to talk to me under bright artificial light. Fresh from the photoshoot for this piece, she has a Red Bull cap pulled tight over her blonde waves, and gives off a sparky energy as we begin chatting. Just out of shot, her wrist is in plaster \u2013 a training crash at the end of October left her with two small fractures,<\/a> delaying the start of her cyclo-cross season.<\/p>\n

Until this very recent spot of bad luck, 2025 had been a year of interdisciplinary dominance for the young Welshwoman. From a double victory at January\u2019s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships<\/a>, rainbow jerseys collected in the mixed team relay and the under-23 race, she went on to rule supreme in time trials, winning five out of the six she competed in, and earning a national and under-23 world title.<\/a> \u201cIf I look back [to last year], compared to where I ended the road season [this year], it\u2019s a day-and-night difference,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a lot of wins this year, which I didn\u2019t expect. I didn\u2019t expect to win a road race \u2013 that was probably one of the big things, and also to win Nationals\u2026 Everything just fell into a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Zoe\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Her first big victory on the road came in July at the Baloise Ladies Tour,<\/a> a six-stage race that weaves through Belgium and the Netherlands. Riding for Canyon<\/a>-SRAM zondacrypto, B\u00e4ckstedt won the overall and three of the stages, including the 3.1km opening prologue. \u201cIt was very interesting. You do a half-hour warm-up for three and a half minutes of racing,\u201d she recalls. Aged just 20 at the time, she became the youngest winner in the race\u2019s 13-year history.<\/p>\n

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B\u00e4ckstedt\u2019s crowning achievement came in September, in her final race of the season and one of her biggest goals: the under-23 time trial at the UCI World Championships in Rwanda. <\/a>\u201cBefore the race, before I even got into my kit, I went into the start area and watched the first rider go off,\u201d she remembers of the morning in Kigali. \u201cI was like, \u2018OK, I need to take in all of the drums and the music and the lights.\u2019\u201d B\u00e4ckstedt wasn\u2019t due at the start ramp for another hour and a quarter, but wanted to be there, soaking it all in.<\/p>\n

When her moment finally came, amid the noise and the rumble of drums, she dropped onto the course, a 22.6km blast she had divided into chunks in her mind. She makes it sound like a piece of cake: after the climb, the C\u00f4te de Nyanza, came a \u201creally, really, really long downhill, a cobbled climb, and then you were done\u201d. The homework paid off. Before even the halfway mark, she caught and passed Czechia\u2019s Julia Kopeck\u00fd, who had started 1.30 earlier. Her next victim was Marie Schreiber of Luxembourg, who had had a three-minute head start and was tagged with a kilometre to go. So commanding was B\u00e4ckstedt\u2019s ride that the next-best rider, Slovakia\u2019s Vikt\u00f3ria Chlado\u0148ov\u00e1, was nearly two minutes astray.<\/p>\n

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\"Zoe\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

B\u00e4ckstedt has competed with the elites on the WorldTour since graduating from the junior ranks in 2023, meaning fans won\u2019t see her in her under-23 rainbow jersey next year Instead, she\u2019ll wear the red, white and blue of the British bands, the spoils of a National Championships TT<\/a> title claimed on home soil in Wales. \u201cMy whole family came up and we were all super excited,\u201d she says. \u201cThe time trial course was absolutely savage. It was super hard, that climb.\u201d B\u00e4ckstedt recalls her radio was buzzing with time gaps from her coach; she was up on the defending champion, Anna Henderson<\/a>, but the climbing wasn\u2019t done. \u201cI think she\u2019s a bit better at climbing than I am, so I knew that I was possibly going to lose time there. I just had to give it everything.\u201d Twenty seconds separated the two at the finish, the rider from Pontyclun winning gold ahead of Henderson.<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: \u00a9 SWpix.com (t\/a Photography Hub Ltd))<\/p>\n

Before the Worlds junior TT in 2022, B\u00e4ckstedt recorded her entire recon with a GoPro,<\/a> dictating notes on the course to study later. Is it this stringent preparation that makes her such a fine time triallist? Or is it physical, her huge power and ability to hold an aero position while at full pelt? \u201cIn a weird way, I think it has a connection to cyclo-cross,\u201d B\u00e4ckstedt says, \u201cwhich is also a very individual effort, you versus your body \u2013 how hard can you push, how deep you can go. I have that power that I can unlock when I\u2019m on a time trial bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Being a multi-discipline rider comes with its challenges, too. \u201cWhen you\u2019re just riding the road bike, it\u2019s easy to forget how to ride in sand and how to do full-gas starts for 20 seconds. They\u2019re such different disciplines.\u201d It\u2019s talking about cyclo-cross, the mud, pain and thrill of off-road riding, that brings the biggest smile to B\u00e4ckstedt\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone thinks we must be a crazy bunch of people to enjoy racing in 2\u00b0C in the rain, when all the road riders are in the sun or on holiday. But that\u2019s part of what I love about it, being in nature, among the trees.\u201d She pauses, as if remembering her equal fondness for the road. \u201cIn the summer, I always say, \u2018Oh, I love the road, but I miss cyclo-cross.\u2019 And in the winter, I always say the opposite . As long as I\u2019m on a bike, I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When cycling is your full-time job<\/a>, it\u2019s vital to enjoy it \u2013 something B\u00e4ckstedt\u2019s parents instilled in their two daughters, Zoe and her older sister, Elynor, who rides for UAE Team ADQ. \u201cI\u2019ve had a bike since I could crawl,\u201d Zoe tells me. \u201cMy parents gave me and my sister bikes, and if we wanted to ride them, that was up to us.\u201d The two girls\u2019 Paris-Roubaix-winning father, Magnus<\/a>, and 1998 British road champion mother, Meg, would take them to the outskirts of Cardiff on weeknights to ride with Maindy Flyers<\/a>, the legendary club that shaped the early careers of Geraint Thomas<\/a> and Elinor Barker. Zoe\u2019s memory of her first race is lost among a childhood full of social rides, hill sprints and circuit races. Lining up at the start of a race felt as natural as a long training ride with the family.<\/p>\n

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In 2021, aged 17, B\u00e4ckstedt won her first road world title in the junior women\u2019s race in Belgium. She went on to claim a momentous double the following year, winning both the road race and time trial titles. In doing so, she earned her first Cycling Weekly Rider of the Year crown, the youngest rider to ever win this magazine\u2019s biggest honour. It\u2019s credit to her meticulous approach, and her love of cycling, that she remains at the top of British racing. \u201cI\u2019m happy with the season I\u2019ve had,\u201d she says at the tail end of another golden year, \u201cnot necessarily just the results, but the progress that I\u2019ve made both as a person and a rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

From riding her lap \u201cso full gas that you\u2019re gasping for air\u201d in the mixed relay at Cyclo-cross Worlds, to winning alongside her team-mates at Baloise, the thrill she gets from riding \u2013 in whatever form it takes, and getting to share it \u2013 continues to shine from B\u00e4ckstedt. At just 21 years old, she has nine rainbow jerseys, split across disciplines and age categories. And as soon as her wrist has healed there will, no doubt, be more to come.<\/p>\n

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\"Zoe\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

HONOURABLE MENTIONS<\/p>\n

Anna Henderson<\/p>\n

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\"Anna\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Olympic time trial silver medallist secured her first Grand Tour stage win and a stint in the pink jersey at the Giro d\u2019Italia, and closed her year with victory at China\u2019s Tour of Guangxi. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to finish the season like this,\u201d she said after the race. \u201cMy first year with Lidl-Trek<\/a> ending in a win \u2013 it\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cat Ferguson<\/p>\n

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\"Cat\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

In her first full year as a pro, the Movistar rider earned a maiden WorldTour win at the Tour of Britain in June, finishing second overall. She also scored a podium at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, a string of top-10s, and was part of the victorious GB mixed relay team at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in January.<\/p>\n

Anna Morris<\/p>\n

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\"Anna\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix)<\/p>\n

Morris successfully defended her individual pursuit crown at October\u2019s UCI Track World Championships in Chile, having earned national and European titles in the event earlier in the year. On the road, she shone in the UK\u2019s crit scene, winning four rounds of the National Circuit Series.<\/p>\n

Katie Archibald<\/p>\n

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\"Two\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Archibald\u2019s year was a testament to her longevity and grit. The 31-year-old track rider opened her season with her first national title in six years \u2013 dominating the points race on the final day \u2013 and ended it with gold in the Madison alongside Maddie Leech at the UCI Track World Championships. She also took home silver in the elimination race.<\/p>\n

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\nZoe B\u00e4ckstedt
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