Zoe Backstedt won her first under-23 world title in sensational style, dominating the field to take the win by one minute 50 seconds on her rivals, delivering Great Britain’s first medal on day two of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships.
Millie Couzens also contested the under-23 women’s time-trial, finishing sixth overall, while Callum Thornley took a commendable fifth in the under-23 men’s event.
Representing Great Britain on the road for the first time since doing the junior double in 2022, Backstedt came into the race with one clear goal and sprinted down the start ramp as if she were at the race’s end.
Moving at pace in the first 10km, Backstedt hit the first time check in 16:17.30, banking an early lead of 16 seconds. As she continued to make her way with ease through the course, Backstedt showed how far ahead of her rivals she was, passing not one but two riders (Czechia’s Jula Kopecky and Luxembourg’s Marie Schreiber) on her way to glory.
By the second time check, Backstedt was 34 seconds up on the field heading up the 1.3km, 6% cobbled climb. Where many riders have come unstuck here so far these championships, Backstedt took it in her stride and showed no signs of weakness as she continued her pace.
As she approached the finish line, Backstedt’s success was guaranteed and she was able to celebrate another classy and dominant performance as she won the under-23 women’s world title.
On claiming the rainbow jersey, Backstedt said:
“It was such a brutal race, it was almost peak temperature of the day, so that didn’t help but I really just gave it everything I had and kept pushing until the end and I’m really happy to pull it off."
“[The course] was the same but different to what I expected if that makes sense! I knew for sure that it was going to be super hard and that it was going to be basically down to the two climbs but the sections in between you did the first climb and descended. It was descending basically all the way to the cobbled climb then and there’s just two points where you could really kill yourself off and hopefully recover in between."
“I’m really happy to pull this off and it’s been some time [since she last rode a world championships] but juniors was my last worlds [in 2022] so I came in with a little bit of hope from that event; ok it was a long time ago but it really gives me a little bit more motivation for pushing in every way.”
Teammate Millie Couzens, who won the National under-23 time-trial event earlier this year, also delivered a great ride in the midday sun, initially second at the first intermediate, with 11 riders to go. Holding her position well and using the descents to gain speed and recover ahead of the 350m of climbing, Couzens kept her second place into the second time check.
Losing a little time on the tricky cobbled climb, Couzens initially placed third as the crossed the line, holding onto the position for a good period until all riders had gone and she eventually took an impressive sixth place overall.
Callum Thornley competed in a highly competitive under-23 men’s time-trial, with surprising results across the field, finishing an impressive fifth overall.
Thornley started well, looking comfortable in a strong aero position, head tucked under to get every ounce of power and speed out of his efforts. With other competitors putting in some impressive rides around him, the Brit kept his cool and passed the first checkpoint in third ace, 10:15 seconds down on Australia’s Nate Pringle, with eight riders to go.
By the second check, the gap had widened a little to 24.79 seconds and he sat in third before being overtaken by Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) and dropping down to fourth. This put the pressure on in the final 13km to push hard and regain some ground if Thornley was going to get onto the podium.
Thornley responded as needed and pushed hard heading into the final climb, managing to put himself in a strong position crossing the line in 39:36.34, overtaking Canada’s Walton Jones to be in second position while the final riders came through.
After a fantastic effort, it wasn’t quite enough for the podium as the French and Swedish riders came across the line in medal positions, seeing Thornley finish fifth overall.
Max Hinds, Dylan Sage, Erin Boothman and Abi Miller contest the junior rainbow jersey in the final day of individual time-trials.
Photo Credit: SWPix
