News: Bronze for Backstedt in TT

Elynor Backstedt added to Great Britain’s medal tally by picking up her second junior women’s time trial bronze in successive years on day 2 of the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire. Leo Hayter 8th & Oscar Nilsson-Julien 9th in Mens Junior TT

News: Bronze for Backstedt in TT

Elynor Backstedt added to Great Britain’s medal tally by picking up her second junior women’s time trial bronze in successive years on day 2 of the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire this morning. Leo Hayter 8th & Oscar Nilsson-Julien 9th in Mens Junior TT

Backstedt – the final rider down the start ramp wearing number 1 – did superbly well to stay upright after an early slide on a sharp right hander and was well in contention after going second fastest through the intermediate split. Despite losing time over the second half of the course, Elynor stopped the clock 22:27.16, securing her third-place finish.

The gold medal and world title went to Russia’s Aigul Gareeva who, despite a late error, clocked 22:16.23 – a winning margin of 3.61 seconds over Dutch rider Shirin van Anrooij.

Afterwards, Backstedt said: “I wasn’t really expecting this. Obviously I wanted to win, like everyone does, but on a course like this you never really know what can happen. It’s quite slippery out there and I nearly didn’t make it round, but I’m absolutely over the moon. The corner early on was wet and had leaves all over it – I just braked a little bit too late and that caused the back wheel to skid, but luckily I held it up! It was a hilly and technical circuit but I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a little wobble half-way around which lost me some seconds but thankfully I stayed on my bike. The crowds were absolutely incredible. I was the last rider down the start ramp and I could hear the fans cheering my name before I’d even started. That cheering didn’t stop then for my full ride and it certainly pushed me along. I am really happy with my bronze medal and it was an unbelievable experience.”

Backstedt’s Great Britain team-mate Amelia Sharpe finished in 26th place, after stopping the clock at 23:51.80.

In the afternoon in the men’s junior time trial, Oscar Nilsson-Julien was first off the ramp for Great Britain and was sitting in the top five for much of the event until the final seeded riders dropped him down to 9th place. One of those was Leo Hayter who was 8th.