Backstedt sisters both win at Gent-Wevelgem as Zoe wins under-17 race and Elynor clinches under-19 title

Retired pro cyclist Magnus ​Backstedt’s daughters have ensured a double cause for celebration in the family in Flanders tonight – with both winning their age-group races at Gent-Wevelgem.

In recent years, the Flanders Classic has expanded to comprise no fewer than seven races on the same day – including races for under-19 and under-17 women.

The latter was won by the younger Backstedt sister, Zoë, riding for Storey Racing, the all-female team set up by multiple Paralympic champion Sarah Storey and her husband Barney.

Aged just 14, she attacked the field at the end of the opening lap and rode away to win the race by three minutes.

We 've the first winner of the day U17 Women
Zoë Backstedt ( yes: daughter of Magnus)!
Fien Masure
Marith Vanhove

Congratulations!#GWE19 #7racesinFlandersFields pic.twitter.com/lfdydoE8bh

— GentWevelgem (@GentWevelgem) March 31, 2019

Two hours later, it was the turn of older sister Elynor, also a member of the Storey Racing team but today riding in the under-19 race for the Great Britain Cycling Team – the family live in Wales, where the girls’ mother, the 1998 British women’s road champion Megan Hughes, was born – to also take a solo victory, by 16 seconds.

4th podium of the day: U19 Women
Elynor Backstedt ( yes: another daughter of Magnus)
Megan Jastrab (USA)
Nina Spapen (NED)#GWE19 #7racesinFlandersFields pic.twitter.com/wswDMRNcO3

— GentWevelgem (@GentWevelgem) March 31, 2019

In what Storey Racing described as “a picture for the Backstedt family album,” the pair lined up on the podium at the end of the day alongside the winners of the other five races today.

Now there’s a picture for the Backstedt family album! @GentWevelgem winners podium #BestVersionOfYou pic.twitter.com/MfxteglQv7

— Storey Racing (@StoreyRT) March 31, 2019

Zoë, far left, was pictured standing next to her sister then, from left to right, women’s elite race winner Kirsten Wild, the men’s elite champion Alexander Kristoff, plus the winners of the men’s under-23, under-19 and under-17 races.

Their father, of course, had form over the cobbles – he won Paris-Roubaix in 2004, the same year he also achieved his best ever placing at Gent-Wevelgem, when he finished second to Tom Boonen.