“I want to win everything. That’s why I ride a bike" - Zoe Bäckstedt on her lofty ambitions and living with the pressure of her family name

Just 19 years of age, Zoe Bäckstedt is already proving herself as one of the top prospects in women's cycling. Both on the road and in cyclocross, the teen is breaking out of the shadow of her successful father and making her own name.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think there is ever going to be more pressure from the outside than what she puts on herself to perform. She loves this and wants to be at the top step of the podium all the time. That’s the only thing she talks about. About when she is going to get there,” her father Magnus Backstedt told Velo. “Of course, it can be somewhat difficult with the surname sometimes. But I think she has gone past that now. She is her own rider and he has got more results in cycling than what I ever had. She has created this whole thing…she is her own person, and I think that is good.”

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So far this winter, the Welshwoman has crowned herself under 23 European Cyclocross Champion and achieved her first two UCI World Cup podiums. Combine that with some very impressive results on the road during 2023 and it's been a breakthrough year. “I think it’s too soon to tell what type of rider I’ll be and what races I’ll go good in," she assesses. “I want to win everything. That’s why I ride a bike. That’s why I start races. So we have to see first where my career takes me.”

Alongside Mark Cavendish, she also shares a mutual interest. “I enjoy Lego, building Lego,” she smiles. “I have a lot of that at home at the moment. That’s kind of the thing I do, just sit there and turn off. Maybe I’ll put some Netflix on and just watch a series, or I’ll put some music on and put my phone away somewhere and just build Lego for a bit. I believe Cav builds Lego too.”

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But what are her goals for 2024? “It’d be cool if I could go to the Olympics,” she answers. “I think it could be possible, but it’s really a tricky selection. There’s a lot of good riders in the UK at the moment going for it as well. I’ll have to see about that one. And maybe the Tour too, if that’s possible, depending also on my form at the time. We’ll see."

And of course, winning the race most synonymous with her father, Paris-Roubaix. “It’s something I want to race every year, if I can,” she answered. “If I can do that, that would be amazing. But it’s a race of luck. You saw what happened this year, they got it down to maybe five or 10 seconds, and it stayed away until the finish. So it’s not something that you can predict."

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