Elynor Backstedt added to Great Britain’s medal tally by picking up her second junior women’s time trial bronze in successive years on a dramatic day 2 of the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire.

Backstedt – the final rider down the start ramp - did superbly well to stay upright after an early wobble, and was well in contention after going second fastest through the intermediate split.

Despite losing time over the second half of the 14km course, she stopped the clock 22:27.16, securing her third-place finish.

The gold medal and world title went to Russia’s Aigul Gareeva who, despite a late error, clocked 22:16.23 – a winning margin of 3.61 seconds over Dutch rider Shirin van Anrooij.

 

Afterwards, Backstedt said:

“I wasn’t really expecting this. Obviously I wanted to win, like everyone does, but on a course like this you never really know what can happen. It’s quite slippery out there and I nearly didn’t make it round, but I’m absolutely over the moon.

“The corner was wet and had leaves all over it – I just braked a little bit too late and that caused the back wheel to skid, but luckily I held it up!”

Backstedt’s Great Britain team-mate Amelia Sharpe finished in 26^th place, after stopping the clock at 23:51.80.

France’s Lea Curinier (23:31.21) and the USA’s Megan Jastrab (23:00.68) each spent some time in the hot seat early on, before Italy’s Sofia Collinelli was the first rider to dip below 23 minutes, stopping the clock in 22:51.61.

Leonie Bos of the Netherlands then took over the leader’s mantle, clocking 22:37.50, before Sweden’s Wilma Olausson recorded a new fastest time of 22:33.19. van Anrooij then moved into the lead, only for Gareeva to secure her world title in dramatic circumstances after she lost time by turning the wrong way down a deviation.

Elynor will be back in action on Friday for the Junior Women’s Road Race where she will hope to add yet another medal to the years earlier haul form the Junior World Track Championships.

Pob Lwc Elynor.