Pre-race favourite Zoe Bäckstedt (Great Britain) put in a storming ride to claim the under-23 time trial title at the Road World Championships, bettering the rest of the field by nearly two minutes to claim her first rainbow jersey since 2022.
Winner of two road race world titles and one time trial title as a junior, plus multiple rainbow jerseys in cyclo-cross and track, Bäckstedt is no stranger to a world title, but she had to wait three years to turn her junior road titles into an under-23 one after missing the last two World Championships.
“It feels amazing to have them back, I’ve missed them the last two years,” she said of donning rainbows again – though she’ll only get to wear them in competition if she competes in an under-23 time trial in the next year, of which there are few.
With her last memory of Worlds being an iconic junior double in Wollongong in 2022, Bäckstedt had good feelings as she chased another rainbow.
Go well it did, but Bäckstedt didn’t know until the finish exactly how well, and despite winning by an impressively large margin, she was very aware of the fact she was suffering over the two tough climbs on the course.
She also caught two riders on her way to the finish line, passing both Julia Kopecký (Czechia) and her three-minute…
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