Ex-Irish international takes British champs silver with 90km solo attack

Zoe Backstedt celebrates becoming national and U23 Road race champion ahead of Josie Knight and Millie Couzens (Photo: Alex Whitehead-SWpix)

Former Irish international road and track rider, Josie Knight (DAS-Hutchinson), almost pulled of a major shock in the women's race at the British National Road Championships in Wales after a 90km solo attack.

She took off on her own today, Sunday, shortly after the start of the title race in Aberystwyth and extended her advantage over the peloton to well over eight minutes at one point.

And though she was caught and dropped by counter attacker Zoe Bäckstedt (CANYON//SRAM), that only happened in the closing stages, with 14km to go, and Knight still hung on for the silver medal.

She held off a chasing group by 20 seconds to secure her silver, after a huge ride out front on her own, with defending champion Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech) winning the sprint from a 10-rider group for the bronze.

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Zoe Bäckstedt celebrates her win, but only after Josie Knight made her close a gap of over six minutes in the last 50km after an epic performance out front solo (Photo: Olly Hassell-SWpix)

Knight was 1:42 down on Bäckstedt, who also won the TT at the championships, on the line, but her ability to hang on and take the silver was an incredible achievement.

She had attacked in the 128km race, before the main climb on the 23.4km inland circuit, but was initially chase by a small group.

When the gap between Knight - who raced road and track for Ireland before declaring for Great Britain - was 25 seconds, she said she considered waiting.

But as she pressed on, her advantage went out to 45 seconds and she kept going solo, leading on her own until just before the final circuit of the finishing lap, of 12.4km, was about to start.

Bäckstedt had attacked the remains of the peloton and managed to catch Knight just before the last passage of the short lap began; distancing her and riding that last lap to victory.

However, such was the size of Knight's lead, Bäckstedt was well over six minutes down as she raced into the final 50km of the contest.

Once she got going, she began to eat into Knight's advantage quickly. Bäckstedt had the staying power to keep her effort going for long enough to deny Knight what would have been a win for the ages.

Still, Knight ended the day with a medal and said she was “just chuffed to hang on for second” especially as she was a rider “who doesn’t do a lot of road racing”.

As a first-year junior rider, she won silver in the individual pursuit at the European Track Championships in Portugal and competed for Ireland as a junior at the World Road Championships in 2014.

She also represented Ireland at the elite European Road Championships in 2016. Knight won the elite Irish omnium title in 2016 and also rode the World Track Championships that season as part of the team pursuit line-up.

However, with the Irish women’s team pursuit set-up petering out after 2016 it appears she was at a crossroads, especially as she was front an English family living in Dingle, Co Kerry, thus deciding to switch allegiance.

She has since won silver and bronze, in the team pursuit, with Great Britain at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, as well as two world titles and five European titles.

 

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