There’s a lot of talent in the Bäckstedt family. Two generations of people who could beat us in any race of our choosing with one leg tied behind their backs. We know Magnus well enough that he might be willing to go a tiny bit easy on us, so we’d pick him to race against.
The youngest of these four incredibly talented cyclists, Zoe Bäckstedt is the Under-23 Time-Trial World Champion, and former U-23 Cyclrocross World Champion. She finished 12th last weekend at the Paris-Roubaix, and top five in both the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Dwars door Vlaanderen a week or so before that.
So, it should be no surprise that Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto (hell of a Scrabble score) were eager to renew her contract. She’ll remain with the team she’s been with since 2023 until the end of the 2028 season. Until at least the end of the 2028 season, we mean, because they’ll no doubt want to retain her services much longer than that.
Backstedt says a deciding element of renewing the contract was the team’s support for her on both road and cyclrocross.
And her team sees that as a positive too, so it’s obviously a good fit. Team DS Rolf Aldag (another person we wouldn’t fancy racing against) told us that Bäckstedt’s future lies in the cobbled classics, time trials, and general classification in stage races. So, everything then.
Well, fair. Because she really seems like she can do it all.
And as if her ability isn’t obvious enough, she says her goal is “to win some more rainbow jerseys.” Most of us don’t even manage one, Zoe.
