After winning her first WorldTour race last month, the under-23 world champion is heading back to the mud
Zoe Bäckstedt has had an odd 2024. The 20-year-old won the under-23 Cyclo-cross World Championships in February, finished second in the Antwerp Port Epic in May, and then won her first Women’s WorldTour event in October. However, she also spent months off the bike due to illness and injury.
“When I was racing this year, I’d say it was pretty good,” the Canyon-SRAM rider explains. “I didn’t do loads of races, but the races I did do, I had some decent results, at Roubaix, at the Vuelta, second at Antwerp. Then to finish it off with a stage win and a GC podium [at the Simac Ladies Tour] – you don’t expect it at the end of the year, but that almost makes it more special.”
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Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he’s happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He’s usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don’t ask how that is related to riding bikes.
