Paris-Roubaix 2004 winner describes emotional response to the first year of both Elynor and Zoe racing cobbled Classic
Zoe and Magnus Bäckstedt embracing at the finish of Paris-Roubaix 2023(Image credit: Future/ Peter Stuart)
Reigning Junior World champion Zoe Bäckstedt rode her first Paris-Roubaix on Saturday, helping teammate Alison Jackson to take victory at the third edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift.
Bäckstedt raced using her father's Speedplay pedals, used in his victory in the 2004 edition of the men’s race – when the pedals were modified by hand ahead of the race to reduce the potential of mud clogging, and would later be turned into a production run of Speedplay Zero Pavé pedals.
"We've always known that Speedplay have been a little bit of a tricky one as soon as you get a bit of mud between the cleats and the pedals to clip in," Magnus Bäckstedt, directeur sportif for Canyon-SRAM, explained to Cyclingnews after the race.
"And those ones, Richard from Speedplay sat in the bathtub in Compiègne and he ground off the coloured bits of the pedal and so that was just the metal so, I could effectively clip if I got any mud in the cleats.”
"They've been around in the house, as well as another production pair of them," Backstedt continued. "I thought why not give her the option of using them."
The potentially thorny issue of which daughter would ride the race-winning pedals was easily resolved, as Zoe's sister Elynor Bäckstedt uses different pedals with Trek-Segafredo.
EF Education-Tibco-SVB rider Zoe and Magnus shared an emotional hug immediately after the finish, with both describing the significance of both Zoe and Elynor riding at Paris-Roubaix for the first time.
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"It's emotional for me racing my first one with Eleanor in the race and him in the team car," Zoe said after the finish. "And then AJ winning it. It all just tops it off.
Speaking about the race more broadly, Bäckstedt described her tough initiation into the cobbled Classic. "It was really savage that, you know, we started with a bit of a street crit, which was super quick."
Zoe Bäckstedt used the same pedals her father Magnus won Paris-Roubaix with in 2004 (Image credit: Future/ Peter Stuart)
"And after that, [on the cobbled sectors] it was just like remembering what I've done is like I did mini Roubaix when I was younger, so the sectors that I hadn't done in recon were the ones I've done like three or four times in the past."
"I was struggling with positions just a little bit," Bäckstedt said. "My legs were a little bit tired already coming into it. You know, it's been a big block of racing for me."
Bäckstedt finished in 46th place, 4:58 down on race winner Alison Jackson, but described the elation of seeing her teammate win.
"I came into the velodrome, looked at the top of the big screen," she said. "I just saw AJ sprinting and then celebrating, and I kid you not, I think I just screamed for that whole lap."
Alison Jackson is well known in the peloton for her vibrant personality, and Backstedt describes a strong friendship between the two of them.
"She's amazing. She really is, you know, like, she's really good with me. And we have a lot of fun together," she said. "Just having her in the team is honestly really nice for all of us."
Despite being on the roster of another team, Magnus shared his daughter's joy for seeing Jackson win.
"You know, it's always nice to see you know, someone who's been taking that opportunity today," he said. "Put yourself in a fight and hold it all the way to the line.
"This is what Paris-Roubaix is all about – daring to do these crazy moves sometimes, you know, may or may not work."
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Peter Stuart has been editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.
Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.
