Despite "a little bit of panic" Zoe Bäckstedt secures back-to-back U23 CX World Championships titles: "I slipped on one of the corners and wiped out"

For the second year running, Zoe Bäckstedt has crowned herself the best of the women's under-23 field at the Cyclocross World Championships. In Lievin in 2025 though, the Welsh star didn't have things all her own way.

“It hasn’t been the smoothest of seasons, but the last few races boosted my confidence. Coming into this one, I had the fire for it. I’m happy to come out on top," reflected the 20-year-old in her post-race interview. That fire though almost caused troubles as she came into difficulty on the opening lap. “The first lap wasn’t so smooth for me... a little bit of panic in the end. It was completely opposite conditions to the recon and just adrenaline from the start of the World Championships. I slipped on one of the corners and wiped out, so I was further behind. I managed to reset myself and come back to the front."

In the end, it proved a relatively comfortable win as 39 seconds separated Bäckstedt with second placed Marie Schreiber. “I wanted to drop the tyre pressure a little bit to see what it was like; I thought it would help. Once that happened and I was on that lower pressure I felt a lot more comfortable," she concludes. “It was a challenging course, different to what I thought it would be like, and it was a lot more slippery, even the flat corners; it was super-easy to wipe out in places. I was still having to push all the way to the line, and it made for an interesting race."