BÄCKSTEDT TO THE FUTURE

After two stunning junior years, Elynor Bäckstedt carries on the family legacy in the pro ranks as one of the sport’s youngest full-time women riders, writes Owen Rogers

- Owen Rogers

The Yorkshire World Championships in 2019 were a real showcase for British riders, but only one began the week bearing the weight of the previous year’s success.

Elynor Bäckstedt had been the only Brit to have reached a podium in Innsbruck, Austria, taking bronze in both the junior time trial and road race, and many hoped for a repeat performance in Harrogate.

However, though she was a second-year junior when she rolled down the time trial start ramp last September, she was still only 17, and her own expectations were realistic.

“If I could choose a TT course it would be a flat, straight line, and obviously that is very opposite to the course they delivered for us,” Bäckstedt tell us in her matter-of-fact, but breezy, engaging way. “I was thinking ‘it’s all about the process’ and if I’d have got a top-five finish I would have been over the moon.

“There was a lot of emotion and stress, and the night before I was looking at the start sheet, I was scrolling and I thought, ‘My name’s not here.’ Then, last off: Elynor Bäckstedt. I tried not to let it get to me, and my family and my boyfriend were so supportive, talking about random things to totally take my mind off it.”

Memorably, her medal bid came close to disaster when she nearly crashed on a corner. “If I’d worn a heart rate monitor you would have seen my heart rate skyrocket there!” she laughs, though the relief is still evident.

“I was so happy I got third. People were asking me if I was disappointed. I was far from disappointed, I was so happy. That is incredible on that course and then to get a medal, it’s ridiculous.” She trails off momentarily, allowing a moment to reflect, before launching into a blow-by-blow account of the “crash fest” road race.