Backstedt 'maybe wouldn't be here' if not for helmet

Zoe Backstedt has highlighted the importance of always wearing a helmet after suffering a scary crash in training.

The Welsh cyclist suffered a broken hand and wrist in October, which saw her cyclo-cross season interrupted.

She returned to racing at the end of December, before finishing seventh in the women's elite race at the 2026 Cyclo-Cross World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands in January, just three months after her accident.

"Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't had it on, maybe I wouldn't be here today, the way the helmet broke into so many pieces," said 21-year-old Backstedt.

"When I crashed I didn't even realise what was happening, because click your fingers and it was over.

"I stood back up and had the immediate aftershock of, 'this isn't good'."

The heavy crash occurred a fortnight before Backstedt was due to start her 2025-26 season.

"My hand was hurting, got it caught in my front wheel and my head was on the ground," the Belgium-based rider told BBC Sport Wales from a training camp in Spain.

"There were so many emotions going through me. My first thought was 'my cyclocross season is done'."

The younger sister of fellow professional Elynor Backstedt, she feared she would not be back on her bike until the prestigious one-day road 'Spring Classics', starting at the end of February.

"I went to a specialist back in Belgium and she said that it was going to be the new year that I was going to be able to race.

"I did start crying in that moment, because I'd done so much training, and I'd done so much preparation for the cyclo-cross season.

"To think that in the space of two seconds, that is gone, you know? That's the season almost done."

Her recovery, however, was quicker than hoped.

"Once I could start training again a little bit and I was cleared from concussion, I started planning when I could get back," she added.

"Then I had a goal to look forward to and I had a race in mind that I could try and be on the start line for.

"That was the thing that was keeping me going, knowing that at some point I could, even though it was a short season, I could still do some cyclocross races."

Backstedt says the experience has left no doubt in her mind about the importance of wearing a helmet.

"Everywhere I go, I try to wear a helmet, even if it's just two kilometres away, it can save you so much if you're in an unfortunate accident."

Despite a reduced cyclo-cross season, Backstedt returned in time to make it to the Worlds at the end of January.

And the Welsh rider admits she loves the wintery conditions cyclo-cross provides.

"The dream conditions are two degrees, raining, just like growing up in Wales," Backstedt explained.

"Everyone is cold on the start line, and then you start, and it's full gas, start to finish.

"You have some running in there, you have to get off and go up stairs, you have to do everything that cyclo-cross involves."

With a new Worlds course in Hulst, Backstedt admits there was still some trepidation when doing reconnaissance.

"Nobody had done the course before," she said.

"You get to the first downhill and we know what it's like to run up but we don't know what it's like to go down.

"You come into it the first time, and you think, 'Oh my gosh, I don't want to look down, because it's really steep,' and you think, 'How am I going to get down here? Which line do I take?'

"You stand at the top for 10 minutes to watch some more people do it, and then you get to the bottom and think 'what was I so worried about?'" she added.

Backstedt's seventh-place finish was just 14 seconds off a medal, and she was an agonising four seconds off a medal in the mixed relay. An encouraging return for her first senior World Championship.

The family name Backstedt carries a lot of weight in cycling circles.

Her father Magnus won Paris-Roubaix and a stage of the 1998 Tour de France, while her mother, Megan, won the British road race national title and competed for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur the same year.

Both Zoe and Elynor followed suit and began to forge their careers in the professional ranks.

Backstedt says she takes a lot of inspiration from her time at Maindy Flyers in Cardiff, a cycling club with some very famous alumni.

"Elinor Barker was just a few years older than my sister, so as I was looking towards cycling as a career, she was stepping into racing and I got to watch her grow and progress in the sport.

"It's something cool to see, coming from the same club you are, riding circles around Maindy Velodrome and you're like 'Yeah, if she can do it, I can do it, maybe I can follow in those footsteps'.

"We've had a similar path into cycling and then you want to do that too."

Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas also began his career at the famous track, first opened in 1951 before hosting the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

"He progressed from Maindy to the men's world tour, so it's a little bit different, but you're still coming from the same place, doing the same sessions on a Tuesday night," she added.

Backstedt hopes she too can provide inspiration for the next generation coming through the club.

"To see all the little ones that are coming up through the sport and see if you can inspire them.

"I think even out on the roads here in Spain, I've seen some people from Maindy out riding.

"You're waving at them on the bike and you're like, 'Yeah, you could be in my team in a few years, or riding in one of the men's teams', and that's just so cool to see."

Backstedt has lofty ambitions for her career, having already won nine world titles by the age of 20 across cyclo-cross, road and track cycling.

But there is no doubt about what the Welsh rider would like to have achieved before her career is all said and done.

"I think I have to go with the obvious dream of Olympic champion, that's one in the future that would be a very big goal of mine," said Backstedt.

"I want to go for Los Angeles 2028, I want to give my everything to be on the start line and go for a podium, that would be pretty cool to do.

"If I hadn't been sick in 2024, I would have liked to have also been on the start line [in Paris], it just wasn't my year.

"That was hard to accept but it just made me hungrier to be on the start line in LA."