By Owen Morgan
Welsh cycling prodigy Elynor Backstedt rounded off a successful week at the UCI World Cycling Championships by signing her first professional contract.
On the day she finished fifth in the junior women’s road race, the 17-year old signed for World Tour team Trek-Segafredo.
The news comes just days after fellow rising Welsh cycling star Jess Roberts announced she had signed for another World Tour team. Mitchelton-SCOTT.
Backstedt, who won a bronze medal in the junior women’s individual time trial on Monday, said she was delighted to have been given a three-year contract with one of the biggest teams in women’s cycling.
“I’m very excited to be joining Trek-Segafredo from 2020,” said Backstedt. “It doesn’t feel real yet, and I can’t wait to meet up with the rest of the team.
“Trek do so much for women’s cycling, supporting female riders and helping them develop and treating everyone the same, that it is an honour to join them.
“They have so many experienced and established riders to learn from, so hopefully, I can find myself in the peloton, improve, show what I’ve got and help out in the team. I can’t wait!”
Backstedt will join some of the world’s top riders at Trek Segafredo including fellow Brit and former World Champion Lizzie Deignan, who will bid to win the road race title again on Saturday.
The Welsh youngster will initially be part of the team’s development squad while continuing her college studies at Coleg Y Cymoedd, Nantgarw.
It’s been a whirlwind week for Backstedt having won bronze on Monday, and then just missing out on another medal in the road race hours before her new contract was announced on Friday.
Backstedt and her Great Britain team-mates, including Swansea’s Eluned King, kept themselves in contention for a podium place throughout the race as they fought to rein in a breakaway before the final stages.
But the Pontyclun rider just missed out in the sprint for the line, finishing fifth just behind American Megan Jastrab, who took the world title in 2:08:00.
The first five riders were all given the same time after 86km of riding from Doncaster to Harrogate.
King was the third British rider home finishing a highly creditable 20th in a time of 2:08.21.
The five-strong Great Britain team’s overall performance in the road race meant they finished second in the UCI Nations Cup behind the Netherlands.
Backstedt said afterwards: “It was quite steady at the start of the race and there were a lot of crashes and a lot of twitchiness in the bunch and a lot of people getting used to the speed and the course and things like that.
“Then it sped up a bit when we got to the rolling parts and it was really difficult, there were lots of attacks towards the end with one or two riders and managing the gap was quite different to how we would normally race.
“This kind of course is so long, so as juniors we’ve never raced this far, so it was a great experience really, just really tough at the end. The finishing straight is horrible!”
Backstedt said she had enjoyed the experience of riding in the World Championships on home soil.
“It’s been absolutely amazing,” she said. “The crowds have been insane, every single person has been cheering for us so it’s absolutely incredible.
“When we signed on this morning, all the kids were cheering and the fact they came out so early as well, that was really nice.”
As for her own personal performance throughout the week-long championships, Backstedt added: “I’m so happy with how it’s gone. I’m over the moon really.”
The World Championships come to a close on Sunday with the elite men’s road race which features Tour De France winner Geraint Thomas and fellow Welshman Owain Doull.