Zoe Backstedt takes silver in World Championships time trial in Montreal

On 20 September 2026 in Montreal, Great Britain's Zoe Backstedt finished second in the women's time trial at the UCI World Road Championships, claiming the silver medal. The 21-year-old Welsh rider had chosen to move up to the elite event rather than defend her under-23 crown.

Backstedt finished 40.11 seconds behind defending champion Marlen Reusser of Switzerland, who retained her title with a winning time of 50 minutes 24.44 seconds on her 35th birthday. Backstedt started third from last and set the time to beat as she came home 5.43 secs quicker than Germany's Franziska Koch, who ultimately took bronze.

Reusser, who was the final rider to start, was more than 10 seconds behind Backstedt at the first checkpoint but increased her pace to claim her second world time-trial gold, adding to last year's victory in Rwanda. The Swiss rider has also won two world silvers and a bronze in the discipline.

The four-time European champion had been virtually unbeatable at the discipline this year, having won time-trial stages at the Tour de France Femmes and the Giro d'Italia Women. Those results underpinned her status as the form rider entering the championships.

Backstedt made her battle hard on a long, winding, technical course and secured just the third British medal in the event, with Emma Pooley having taken gold in 2010 and bronze a year later. The Briton, a former world junior and under-23 time trial champion, won both the women's road race and time trial at this year's British Championships; she also won the under-23 world time trial title in 2025.

"Zoe proved today that she deserves to be up there racing with the elites," British rider Hayley Simmonds told BBC Sport. "She really put her mark on this race. She was leading for the first two intermediate checkpoints and still finished in second. "It's not like she went out too hard and died, she just had a very mature race and I am excited to see what she can do in the next few years."

Backstedt will ride again in the women's elite road race at the World Championships on Saturday, 26 September. Elsewhere in the time trial, reigning European road race champion Demi Vollering was eighth, while Backstedt's British team-mate Anna Morris finished 16th.