Wales Star Zoe Backstedt Admits She Went Through The Pain Barrier to Claim “Brutal” World Title

Zoe Backstedt described her maiden Under-23 world championship victory as “brutal” after conquering both the Kigali hills and sweltering conditions to deliver Great Britain’s first medal of the 2025 Road World Championships.

The 20-year-old Welsh rider produced a commanding display to win the women’s time trial by nearly two minutes, but it was her reaction at the finish — gasping for air as ice water was poured down her back — that told the story of just how demanding the test had been.

“It was such a brutal race, it was almost peak temperature of the day, so that didn’t help but I really just gave it everything I had and kept pushing until the end and I’m really happy to pull it off,” said Backstedt, who grew up in Pontyclun and has long been regarded as one of Wales’ brightest cycling exports.

“The climb at the end – your legs are tired and you look up and you think ‘this one’s going to hurt’. 

“It took so much energy out of your arms, legs and body on all of those bumps,” she explained.

Backstedt had arrived in Rwanda eager to measure herself again on the world stage, riding in British colours for the first time since doing the junior double in 2022. 

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This was her first opportunity to test herself against the best in the under-23 category, and she admitted the challenge was greater than she had anticipated.

“[The course] was the same but different to what I expected if that makes sense! 

“I knew for sure that it was going to be super hard and that it was going to be basically down to the two climbs but the sections in between you did the first climb and descended. 

“It was descending basically all the way to the cobbled climb then and there’s just two points where you could really kill yourself off and hopefully recover in between.”

READ MORE: Zoe Backstedt Says Welsh Country Roads Took Her Home To First Elite National Time Trial Title

Her reflections were made against the backdrop of a race that left many struggling. 

With temperatures pushing 26C and the punishing cobbled rise proving decisive, several competitors faltered badly. 

Backstedt, however, thrived — even if she admitted it had pushed her to the edge.

“I’m really happy to pull this off and it’s been some time [since she last rode a world championships] but juniors was my last worlds [in 2022] so I came in with a little bit of hope from that event.

“Okay, it was a long time ago but it really gives me a little bit more motivation for pushing in every way,” she added.

Backstedt, who rides for the Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto team, is the daughter of Swede and 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus, and sister of Elynor who competes for UAE-ADQ.

Her trademark gutsy attitude and racing nous shone through on the road itself. 

She started aggressively, posting the quickest opening split, and only widened the gap as the kilometres ticked by. 

By halfway she was already half a minute up, having overtaken two riders, and by the finish her margin of victory had ballooned to one minute 51 seconds over Slovakia’s Viktoria Chladonova, with Italy’s Federica Venturelli rounding out the podium.

The historic nature of her triumph was not lost on her either. 

This is the first time the Road World Championships have been staged in Africa since their inception in 1921, and Backstedt embraced both the occasion and the unique challenge Rwanda presented. 

“It’s brutal climbing here, but I really like it,” she laughed afterwards, summing up both the pain and the satisfaction.

She was not the only British rider to excel. Teammate Millie Couzens, the national under-23 time trial champion, pushed herself into the top six despite fading slightly on the cobbled climb. 

Initially lying second at the first checkpoint, she eventually crossed the line in sixth, a strong performance in unforgiving conditions.

In the men’s under-23 time trial, Callum Thornley also impressed, finishing fifth. 

His fast start put him third at the opening split, and though he was overtaken by Poland’s Mateusz Gajdulewicz and others later on, he battled through the final climb to retain a place inside the top five. 

Sweden’s Jakob Soderqvist claimed gold in that event.