Backstedt looking forward to her cyclo-cross return

ZOE Bäckstedt will make her cyclo-cross season debut this weekend, less than two months after she fractured her wrist in a training crash, her Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team has announced.

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The 21-year-old, the reigning under-23 cyclo-cross world champion, said her helmet saved her life when she came off her bike in early November. Following the crash, she trained indoors for over a month, and has now been medically cleared to return to racing.

Bäckstedt was originally due to open her cyclo-cross season in mid-November, but will now do so at the UCI World Cup round in Dendermonde, Belgium, on December 28.

Her full calendar will count eight events, with her participation at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships on the final weekend of January still to be determined.