Zoe Bäckstedt soloed to road race victory at the British National Championships on Sunday, attacking alone with 14km to go in Aberystwyth.
The Canyon-SRAM rider doubled up on her time trial victory from Thursday, holding off Josie Knight (DAS-Hutchinson) to take the elite title for the first time. Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech), the defending champion, finished third.
Knight might not have won, but alongside Bäckstedt was the standout rider of the race, having been in the early break and then leading for 90km on her own, with a significant gap of up to eight minutes at one point.
However, after joining forces with Matilda McKibben (O'Shea Red Chilli Bikes) and Jo Tindley (Smurfit Westrock), Knight's lead was cut down, before Bäckstedt attacked alone in search of the leader. With 14km to go, the 21-year-old caught Knight, and passed her.
Despite a concerted chase effort behind, Bäckstedt held off the remnants of the peloton, with the gap remaining at two minutes to them.
"The first part was super interesting, there was a break of ones and twos, who got maybe six or seven minutes ahead of us," the victor said, post-race. "On the last lap of the big lap, it was quite hard over that steep climb, and I was hanging on for dear life at the end of that. It wasn’t the most ideal feeling, so I knew it was going to be a hard day. Then on the long climb as we entered the small circuit, I felt really good, and Flora (Perkins) attacked and I followed it and went over the top of her, and then it was a 55km solo day to the finish to try and catch Josie.
"It’s been a super good week. To win the time trial on Thursday and be on the podium with my sister that was a real highlight. To have her on the side of the road today and in the feed zone for me has been great. To have my whole family here has made it a great week where I could be super relaxed and have fun."
"It was a long old day," Knight, for her part, said. "Last year I got into a break and we worked quite well together, I am not the most confident rider, I don’t do a lot of road racing, so I’m not the most confident in the peloton, so I tried to get into a break to have a good day out. Unfortunately, I did that but I ended up on my own. Once I was gone I got a time gap of 25 seconds to four riders, and I was like, ‘do I wait for them, is it better in a group?’ and then it soon went to 45 seconds, so I knew I was in for a long day.
"I was having mental battles with myself and asking ‘will they not just catch me already and put me out of my misery?' I was getting the time gaps so I knew Zoe was coming across, so I tried to give it all, but she just came past like a steam train.
"I was just chuffed to hang on for second. My team car kept coming up alongside me and telling me to believe in myself and that I could get second. So I just emptied myself to the line, so I am really happy."
Bäckstedt also won the under-23 race at the same time. Imogen Wolff (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Erin Boothman (Liv AlUla Jayco Continental) finished in the third group on the road to take second and third in that classification, respectively.
Results
British National Road Championships, elite women road race (128km)
1. Zoe Bäckstedt, Canyon-SRAM, in 3:30:44
2. Josie Knight, DAS-Hutchinson, +1:42
3. Millie Couzens, Fenix-Premier Tech, +2:02
4. Pfeiffer Georgi, Picnic PostNL
5. Anna Morris
6. Imogen Wolff, Visma-Lease a Bike
7. Erin Boothman, Liv AlUla Jayco Continental, all at same time
8. Josie Nelson, Picnic PostNL, +2:03
9. Anna Henderson, Lidl-Trek
10. Noémie Thomson, DAS-Hutchinson, all at same time
