Under-23 cyclocross world champion Zoe Bäckstedt is set to miss the start of the 2025-26 cyclocross season after suffering two hand and wrist fractures in a training crash last Friday.
The 21-year-old announced the news in a post on Instagram in which she thanked her bike helmet for saving her life.
Now, Bäckstedt will miss her opening races of the upcoming campaign, which would've fallen in November as they did last season with the X2O Trofee Lokeren, Superprestige Merksplas, and X2O Trofee Hamme.
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"October - the highs and lows," Bäckstedt wrote on her monthly roundup Instagram post, which included images of her heavily damaged helmet and of her heavily strapped wrist.
"A perfect month of training and ‘holidays’ but a crash for me in training yesterday resulted in 2 small fractures in my hand and wrist… It’s a shame to have this outcome and to miss the first races of the season but give me time and I’ll come back stronger.
"One thing I know for sure, my helmet saved my life. Thank you Giro Cycling. Wear a helmet, please."
Bäckstedt, who combines her cyclocross season with road racing for Canyon-Sram-Zondacrypto, enjoyed a consistent season among the elites last winter, recording 15 top-10 placings across 15 races and taking fourth overall in the UCI World Cup standings.
To round off her season, she stormed to the under-23 world title in Liévin, France, beating Marie Schreiber (Luxembourg) by 39 seconds. She went on to enjoy her best road racing season to date, too, winning the British national team trial title, the under-23 world time trial title, and the Baloise Ladies Tour.
She's now expected to be back racing towards the end of November, with her previous cyclocross debut set to fall in the middle of the month.
