UCI Road World Championship 2021 - Britain's Zoe Backstedt wins silver in the women's junior time trial

ByEurosport

Updated 21/09/2021 at 14:22 GMT

Zoe Backstedt continues family success in cycling with a silver medal in the women's junior time trial, narrowly missing out on gold won by Alena Ivanchenko. "I don't think I've ever been that nervous, especially when we saw the intermediate times," father Magnus Backstedt, a Paris-Roubaix and Tour de France stage winner, said on Eurosport commentary.

Zoe Backstedt has won silver in the women's junior time trial at the Road Cycling Championships.

The 16-year-old Welsh rider finished the 19.4km course in 25 minutes, 16.13 seconds which was 10.64 seconds behind Russian winner Alena Ivanchenko.

"The Russian rode so strong," Backstedt told Eurosport afterwards as Ivanchenko pipped her to the finish line.

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"I don't know how she did it. I could not have gone harder. I was absolutely gasping by the end. I was seeing stars.

"I'm really happy with a silver medal. It's my first world championship so to be on the podium is amazing."

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Backstedt's second-placed finish means her and her older sister Elynor, 19, have been on the junior women's TT podium every Championships since 2018.

Zoe's father, Magnus, took stage victories in both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia and won the Paris-Roubaix classic in 2004 while her mother, Megan, competed for Wales at the Commonwealth Games.

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Coming from a family of cyclists, Zoe explained their importance for giving her advice.

She added: "It helps a lot. It helps me to understand how everything works.

"I was on FaceTime to my sister the past two days and she was trying to keep me calm. Having her, my dad, my mum, everything just helps so much more."

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