Zoe Backstedt: Bred for success - why 21-year-old was destined for cycling's peaks

The beaming smile fits the remarkable achievement. The words offer up the tinge of regret from a potential cycling great in the making.

"I have to say I'm happy, but at the same time of course I also came here for a gold medal," said Zoe Backstedt, shortly after collecting time trial silver at cycling's Road World Championships in Montreal.

The response also demonstrates both a youthful exuberance and a maturity not all can muster, even well beyond Backstedt's 21 years.

"To be still 21, my first elite and still eligible for the under-23s, to be second is really incredible and I've had a smile on my face since the second I crossed the line. It's been a really cool day," she added.

But then the Welsh talent - who will celebrate her 22nd birthday later this week - has already been winning for years, having been raised from a successful cycling family and, many have long agreed, destined for the very top of the sport.

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Backstedt carries a famous name around with her.

Her father Magnus won the famous cobbled Paris-Roubaix one-day race and a stage of the Tour de France during a lengthy career as a professional, before moving into coaching and broadcasting.

Her mother Megan won the British Road Race national title, competed for Great Britain at World Championships and for Wales at the Commonwealth Games.

Her older sister Elynor is also a talented professional cyclist with back-to-back medals at the Junior Road World Championships in 2018 and 2019.

"For a long, long time I actually hated cycling," Zoe, the youngest of the family, once told the BBC.

"It took me until I was maybe 10 or 11 to enjoy it.

"At the time I was doing cycling, netball, tennis and athletics all at once. I'd go out on the bike, but I'd say to dad that I don't want to do any more than two hours. I was adamant.

"Then one day it just clicked and I thought this is what I want to do."

At 17, Backstedt became the youngest ever winner of a women's elite cycling race in Belgium, with a cyclo-cross win in Essen.

By the age of 20 she had already won nine world titles across cyclo-cross, road and track cycling.

Having claimed the Junior World Road Race gold in Flanders in 2021, a year down the line she not only retained her title but also added the time-trial crown.

In 2025, still only 20 and riding her first world under-23 time trial, she demolished the field, finishing one minute 51 seconds ahead of her nearest rival on a hilly course in Rwanda.

Again, her post-race words gave a deep insight into her sporting determination.

"It's brutal climbing here, but I really like it," she said after conquering a course which included a punishing cobbled incline.

It has not all been plain sailing. In 2024, sickness meant she missed out on a chance to ride at the Paris Olympics.

Her 2025 cyclo-cross season was interrupted by a broken hand and wrist, which kept her out of racing until January of this year, when she returned with seventh in the women's elite race at the Cyclo-Cross World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands.

When you are as determined - and talented - as Zoe Backstedt, such setbacks can be merely launching pads for even better to come.

Back on the road in June, she took her ninth professional victory - winning a sprint stage at the Tour de Suisse Femmes.

Over the next 10 days she doubled up at the British Road Championships - first successfully defending her elite time-trial crown before winning her first British road race title with another emphatic victory in Aberystwyth.

In July, she retained the Baloise Ladies Tour title, a year after becoming the youngest winner of the race.

She rode the Tour de France Femmes for the first time in August - a "goosebumps" moment, she told the BBC - finishing a creditable fourth in the time-trial stage.

And now, in September - having declined the opportunity to defend her U23 title - she finished second to 35-year-old Swiss Marlen Reusser who retained her elite world time trial crown in Canada.

"I'm over the moon with my performance," Backstedt told the BBC after a few hours to reflect on her ride.

"It was really a crazy long time trial so to take home the silver medal, I'm super proud of that."

Backstedt is not finished yet either in Montreal. On Saturday, 26 September she will line up as one of the leaders for Great Britain in the road race.

"It's going to be a hard course, that's for sure," said Backstedt.

"But myself and Lauren Dixon will be the leaders and I think with the team that we've got coming, we will make it a really hard race."

She has no intention of making life easier by concentrating on one cycling discipline.

"I would like to continue across them all," Backstedt said.

"Time-trialling, road, cyclocross, they're all three disciplines that I really love doing and I love racing so I can't really say if I would choose one or the other.

"I think putting all of them in there and doing a lot of work for all of them is what makes me stronger by the end of the season as well, so I will continue to race all of them."

And, almost certainly, Backstedt will continue to win more medals too.