Great Britain’s Zoe Backstedt and Joshua Tarling stormed to victories in the junior women’s and men’s time trials at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Wollongong, Australia
The 17-year-old Backstedt clocked 18 minutes 26.78 seconds over the 14.1km course in New South Wales, some 95km (60 miles) south of Sydney, to finish one minute 35.58 seconds ahead of Germany’s Justyna Czapla, who was followed by Febe Jooris of Belgium.
Later Tarling, 18, produced a similarly dominant performance with a time of 34:59 over a 28.8km course.
Backstedt, who now holds the junior women’s world titles in cyclocross, road race, time trial and Madison, attributed her success to how she handled the pressure of the occasion.
She said: “It feels incredible, I really wanted this one, it means a lot… I’m so happy I could pull it off.
“Out on the course my legs were hurting, but that was a good thing because I knew I was going hard and going strong, just trying to hold my power.
“If I’m honest, there’s no pressure, I’m young and don’t need pressure put on me. If I do, then it’s not a good thing to have in your mind.
“Before the race I just tried to relax out in the sun. Every race I go into, there’s no pressure. If you mess up, you mess up but if you do well then even better. It’s just all about enjoying it.”
The Welsh cyclist will compete again on Saturday in Illawarra as she looks to retain the road race title she claimed in Flanders last year.
“It’s going to be a tough one, I’m looking forward to it,” she said.
“Now I know what the course is like under a full-gas effort, obviously we have a couple more climbs, but it’s going to be interesting and fun and very early in the morning.
“From the time-trial course, I think the road course suits me, but there’s some steeper climbs put in for the road race, it’s a little longer, there’s some more corners, so anything could happen on the day as well.”
Tarling, who has agreed a deal to join the Ineos Grenadiers, was the last rider off the ramp in the men’s event, and made it clear he was the class of the field with the fastest time at each of the intermediate check points.
His final margin of victory over Australia’s Hamish McKenzie was 19 seconds as he improved on his silver medal in this event 12 months ago.
“It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet but it just feels like a relief,” Tarling said.
“It’s been so much hard work and I was a bit annoyed after last year. I really wanted it.”
