Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//SRAM) completed a stunning double in the elite women's road race at the British Road Championships in Aberystwyth on Sunday. After successfully defending her individual time trial title on Thursday, Bäckstedt added the road race to her palmares, her first elite title on the road won on home soil in Wales.
DAS-Hutchinson's Josie Knight finished second, a fantastic reward following a brave solo ride in the breakaway for the track specialist, and last year's champion Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech) won the sprint from a reduced bunch to round out the podium.
Knight attacked early in the race, ahead of the finishing circuit in Aberystwyth, and led the race alone for over 90 kilometres, enjoying a gap of around 8 minutes at one point.
A chase group of three riders - Bäckstedt, Matilda McKibben (O'Shea Red Chilli Bikes) and Jo Tindley (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team) - attempted to make an impact on Knight's advantage and cut it down to four minutes with three laps of the local circuit remaining, when Bäckstedt launched an attack to leave the trio and set off in pursuit of Knight.
It was a breathtaking chase, with Bäckstedt taking off half of the deficit in the first lap of her solo pursuit. She continued to chip away steadily at the gap and with Knight visibly tiring, Bäckstedt's power and time trialling acumen saw her make the catch with 14km to go.
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Behind the leaders, Picnic-PostNL spearheaded an attack from the peloton to try and split the bunch, and defending champion Couzens was among the group to make the split.
The chase group put pressure on the leaders, closing to within two minutes of Bäckstedt as she took the lead. However, they were no match for the endurance of the Welsh rider, and were unable to make any further impression on Bäckstedt's lead over the remainder of the race.
The 21-year-old proved her mettle, holding on to become the first British woman to complete the time-trial-road race double since Alice Wood in 2019. Speaking after the race, Backstedt said: “It was a really interesting race with the break getting almost seven minutes, I think. I didn't have the best feeling in my legs at the beginning of the day, and then going over the long climb, I felt okay, so I decided to try and follow some stuff, and yeah, 50k-55k solo, then to the finish, so was a really hard day."
On whether or not she enjoyed the race, Bäckstedt had this to say. “Enjoyed is an interesting word. I pushed myself to the limit. I just wanted to control a little bit of my power, so I knew what I could do for such a long period of time, and just needed to keep eating, keep drinking, and stay focused until the end, and keep pushing to try and catch back Josie. That happened, and then still had a lot to go, so one of the hardest laps was that last one. Just also mentally knowing that I was so close to the finish.
"It means a lot, really. I had a good week on the bike last week in Tour de Suisse, and I knew coming into this week that it was going to be a good course for me, and the climbs were super good for me as well. So yeah, I was really hoping for that."
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