Calling from her team hotel near this year’s startline in Denain, Zoe Bäckstedt struggles to remember how many times she’s raced Paris-Roubaix Femmes.
“I think I’ve done it like, hmmmm, maybe four times? Or three? I think I’ve done three out of five editions so far, so this will be my fourth one.”
At just 21, Bäckstedt is hardly old, but her fifth-place finish behind favourite and former world champion Lotte Kopecky at last weekend’s Ronde van Vlaanderen showcased a rider with maturity beyond her years. That performance has put her firmly in contention for victory on Sunday.
Bäckstedt is in the form of her life going into her fourth Paris-Roubaix (Image credit: SWpix.com)
“I didn’t believe in the moment that I was in that front group at Flanders. I looked at people around me and was like ‘what!?’ Everyone else at the end of the race said it was super hard, but I thought it was fun!” she says. “I’m still thinking about that, and hoping and manifesting that the legs are still there this Sunday."
As riders rolled to their buses, battered, bruised, and shell-shocked by the demands of the cobbles, the finish line in Oudenaarde last week amounted to typical Flanders fallout. Bäckstedt, however, had emerged buoyant and bubbly when I caught her to ask if we’d see her at Roubaix:
“Am I riding at Roubaix? Silly question!” the Welshwoman said.
Listening to her now, the retort makes sense. Bäckstedt wears the dust of northern France’s farmtracks like a second skin, and will cross the line on Sunday in a velodrome that feels like home. The Hell of the North has its own history within her family: her father, Magnus Bäckstedt, won Roubaix in 2004.
“I always say that I was born into this race. I obviously wasn’t actually there when my dad won it in 2004, but I was in my Mum’s belly. We're a family who loves it, and we also like to celebrate my dad’s win. It’s a super hard race to win, so it brings out a lot of joy and excitement to all of us.”
The Red Bull athlete and her older sister, Elynor (Team UAE–ADQ), have competed in the race together every year since 2022. It’s an occasion of nostalgia and novelty rather than sibling rivalry, as Bäckstedt explains:
“In previous editions, it's just been surreal riding with Elynor. At some points we were riding side-by-side on a cobbled sector. It's like you've almost grown up riding this like this: the occasional time coming over to France to just ride the cobblestones and to then watch the men's race when we were younger.
“I love it every time I get to race with my sister. We do the same races because we're very similar riders, but also sometimes it’s terrifying when I hear crashes and I don't know where she is,” she says, referring to the incident which involved her sibling at Ronde van Brugge last month. This year’s edition of Roubaix will be the first time the Bäckstedts will not take to the course as sisters-in-arms.
Zoe Bäckstedt with her dad, former Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt (Image credit: SWpix.com)
And while years of experience across both road and cyclocross disciplines have no doubt played a part in the younger Bäckstedt’s current Classics form, it’s the gritty homeroads of south Wales that have accustomed her to the tough, attritional parcours of the cobbled races.
“The Welsh roads are brutal, like it’s super grimey. You can be riding at 25kmph and doing 200 watts plus, whereas in Belgium you can be doing 200 watts and going 35kmph,” she says.
“It turns you into a really strong rider. Just to be able to ride through the bad weather, the tough roads, the tough climbs. It’s basically like riding a Classic every day! Currently, I would say I’m a Classics rider. I think I have the racing style for that.”
The fact that Bäckstedt will line up on Sunday as one of the most experienced riders in the bunch makes for an interesting prospect. While Paris–Roubaix Femmes’ relative youth compared to the men’s race reflects broader inequalities in professional cycling, it also creates an interesting levelling effect between older and younger riders. On her Roubaix debut in 2023, Bäckstedt rode as part of the EF Education–TIBCO–SVB squad that delivered Alison Jackson’s career-defining victory. Three years on, she lines up as a leader for Canyon-SRAM, and a firm favourite.
“The first time I did Roubaix, I was just super happy to cross that finish line, and being in the winning team was awesome. I had no radio, I didn't know what had happened. I came into the velodrome and saw the TV and was like, ‘Oh my God’.”
“I’d love to have my name on that list,” she continues. “It's still a race where you have to have some luck and I’m trying not to really think about being a favourite. It's more about just riding the race aggressively and in a fun way and enjoying the cobblestones. That's, that's how you end up in the front group at the end.”
Enjoying the cobblestones? It’s not exactly a walk in the park. But for Bäckstedt, it’s not far off…
“It’s super cool to be quite experienced in this race now. I guess this year I’m one year older, one year wiser,” she says with a wry smile.
Read more about Paris-Roubaix 2026:
- Redefining fatigue: Why durability might be the next big thing in performance metrics
- Belief, becoming, and the space in between: A rest day with Saint Michel
- 'Always keep riding’ - looking back at Mat Hayman's remarkable 2016 Paris-Roubaix
