The massive favourite for this year’s junior World Championship time trial duly delivered with a powerful performance against the clock. The British rider just missed out in last year’s edition to Alena Ivanchenko but made amends for that in Wollongong. The final gap between Backstedt and 2nd placed Justyna Czapla of Germany was 1’36”, a huge gap in a TT that raced over just 14.1km. Feje Jooris of Belgium took the bronze medal.
Backstedt, who has already signed and raced for the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team had already won the Cyclocross and Madison world titles in 2022, which combined with her road title in 2021 leaves her as the world champion in 4 separate disciplines at the same time. A record only matched by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot in 2015. Not only that but Zoe Backstedt has also won the junior national championships in the road race and time trial, Omloop Borsele, all 6 stages and the GC at the U6 Cycle Tour and the Watersley Challenge Juniors. There hasn’t been this much hype about a British junior since Lucy Garner (now Van der Haar) won back-to-back junior world titles in 2011 and 2012.
“I wanted to be world champion and also like to dive under 20 minutes. I didn’t expect to be so fast either. I did a good recon on Saturday and after that I just didn’t think too much about the World Cup. I started here relaxed. Now I would like to win the road race as well, but we’ll see how it goes”
Zoe Backstedt
Backstedt was the only rider to complete the course in under 19 minutes in this year’s time trial. Her time of 18’36” making her the only rider to also go under 20 minutes, such was the scale of her victory. Hopes had been pinned on the likes of Febe Jooris, 3rd at the Euros recently, Anna van der Meiden, 4th in last year’s Worlds TT and Nienke Vinke, the current Dutch road and TT champion. However none of them were able to come close, With Jooris finishing 3rd, Van der Meiden 5th and Vinke in 7th.
Justyna Czapla, who won the European Championships in Backstedt’s (and all of Great Britain’s) absence was able to close in on 2nd. Without Backstedt it would’ve been a remarkably close podium with Jooris in 3rd separated by just 6 seconds to Isabelle Carnes in 8th.
Junior Women’s World Championships Time Trial Results
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
