Huge ride sees Great Britain's Zoe Backstedt become double Junior World Champion on 18th birthday
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Updated 26/09/2022 at 12:17 GMT
On her 18th birthday Zoe Backstedt of Great Britain, who claimed the junior time trial world championship on Tuesday, became a double rainbow jersey winner on Saturday after destroying the field in Wollongong. France's Eglantine Rayer beat Netherlands Nienke Vinke in a two-up sprint for the silver medal. Backstedt was defending the road title after victory in 2021.
WATCH - Zoe Backstedt comes home for second World Champs win on birthday
A remarkable ride from Great Britain's Zoe Backstedt on her 18th birthday saw her add the road race rainbow jersey to the time trial title taken earlier in the week. That makes it the fourth rainbow jersey that Backstedt currently holds, along with the World junior madison and cyclocross titles. Backstedt won by a larger margin than anyone has before, on either men's or women's side.
Backstedt went solo on the first lap and "never looked back" eventually coming home more than two minutes ahead of France's Eglantine Rayer and Nienke Vinke of the Netherlands.
The 67km course featured four ascents of the challenging Mount Pleasant climb. After her convincing victory in the time trial Backstedt was a strong favourite to win the road race for the second year in a row.
72 riders set out at 8am in what looked set to be challenging conditions, with the British team looming threateningly at the front of the bunch. The four riders paroled the head of the peloton, leading them onto the climb at a high pace that blew the field apart.
Interviewed ahead of the race Backstedt said "I'd love to go solo," and so it proved. With 58km still to race, just after the summit of Mount Pleasant, she found herself with a gap as France and Switzerland were forced to spin their legs to chase her down.
A small gap became a large one; a few gentle taps of the hammer on the descent became mighty strikes. After ten kilometres it already looked like two separate races, with the field fighting it out for scraps.
After one lap Backstedt led by 20 seconds from Eliška Kvasničková of Czechia. 15km in the gap was up to almost one minute. Backstedt had two British team-mates in the peloton who could afford to take it easy and mark the wheels of the other teams, such as the French, Dutch and Germans.
Backstedt, the younger daughter of men's Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus, made light work of the second ascent of Mount Pleasant, riding from the saddle while Kvasničková climbed from the pedals as the peloton pulled her back.
By 30km into the race, Kvasničková was back in the bunch. At the halfway mark, Backstedt's lead topped two minutes.
As Backstedt’s team-mates Awen Roberts and Grace Lister moved to the front of the peloton, the leader’s advantage ticked up towards three minutes. Barring disaster the race was all but over.
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'No not in the slightest!' - Backstedt admits early attack wasn't part of the plan
On the penultimate ascent of Mount Pleasant, Rayer of France went on the attack. The effort did not bring her a decisive lead over the rest, but did serve to cause several riders to fall away. Of the Brits, only Awen Roberts was left. The increase in pace also made a bit of a dent in Backstedt’s lead.
The next move came from Vinke of the Netherlands. As she took the bell she had successfully forced a significant gap over the chasing group.
Backstedt, meanwhile, was able to take it relatively easy, as she time trialled towards victory. She kept herself loose, stretched her back and chatted to the team car as she closed in on the title. By this point the distance on the road was more than 1500 metres.
Julia Kopecky (Czechia) and Noelle Ruetschi (Switzerland) could see the medals slipping away so tried to get up the road themselves. The climb proved too hard and Rayer was the one to take advantage, quickly closing the gap to the Dutch rider and the pair were able to establish a meaningful gap over the summit.
Looking to seal silver, Vinke attacked the Frenchwoman from 2km out but couldn’t quite get away.
Backstedt cruised comfortably across the line to seal an astonishing victory.
Just less than two minutes later came the sprint for second. Rayer forced Vinke to lead it out but as well as a stronger climb, the French rider had the punchier finish and there was nothing the Dutch woman could do.
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