Magnus Bäckstedt

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Magnus Bäckstedt
File:Magnus Bäckstedt, Jersey Town Criterium 2011.jpg
Bäckstedt in 2011
Personal information
Full name Magnus Bäckstedt
Nickname Magnus Maximus
Big Maggy[1]
Born (1975-01-30) 30 January 1975 (age 49)
Linköping, Sweden
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Weight 94 kg (207 lb; 14.8 st)[2]
Team information
Current team Team UK Youth
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1996–1997 Collstrop-Palmans
1998–2001 GAN
2002–2003 Team Fakta
2004 Alessio–Bianchi
2005–2007 Liquigas–Bianchi
2008–2009 Slipstream–Chipotle
2009 MagnusMaximusCoffee.com
2012 Team UK Youth
2013 MG-Maxifuel
Major wins
Paris–Roubaix (2004)
Tour de France, 1 stage (1998)
Infobox last updated on
27 January 2012

Magnus Bäckstedt (born 30 January 1975)[2] is a former Swedish professional road bicycle racer. His most notable achievement in cycling is winning Paris–Roubaix in 2004.

Early life

Born in Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, Bäckstedt began as a skier, selected for the national team when he was 14.[3]

Career

Bäckstedt began his professional career in 1996,[4] riding for Collstrop before moving to Palmans in 1997. In 1998, having switched to GAN, Bäckstedt came seventh in 1998 Paris–Roubaix and won the 19th stage of the 1998 Tour de France between La Chaux-de-Fonds and Autun.

In 2002 and 2003 he rode for Team Fakta where he was the strongest rider in 2003. When Fakta closed he went to Alessio–Bianchi, where he won the 2004 Paris–Roubaix. The two favourites, Peter van Petegem and Johan Museeuw dropped out after crashes, leaving Bäckstedt to sprint on the track at Roubaix against two others.[5] The manager of Crédit Agricole, Roger Legeay, had predicted that Bäckstedt would one day win the race. He said: "He's not a flahute.[6] He's not especially the fastest, but after 260km on the cobbles, it's often the rider who feels freshest who wins."[2]

In 2005 Bäckstedt moved to Liquigas-Bianchi, and came second on the 7th stage of the 2005 Tour de France. He rode for Slipstream–Chipotle in 2008.[7] He was eliminated in that year's Tour de France for being too slow. He said:

I had been going OK, and on that stage we decided to make it hard from the start because we were close enough to yellow to get the jersey. The first 60km were up and down, but I was going fine. Then there was this fourth-category climb and about halfway up I was suddenly short of breath. It was like I shut down from the waist down. I went straight out of the back. I calmed down and got back on top of it. There was 100km to go, but I went OK. I could see the numbers on the power meter and they were normal for the kind of effort you need to get to the finish on your own inside the time limit. I think I would have made it too, but there was a real steep hill just before the finish and my breathing and legs went again. I ended up four minutes outside the cut-off.[8]

Bäckstedt announced his retirement from professional cycling on 6 February 2009, citing a desire to focus on managing his developmental cycling team, Cyclesport.se-MagnusMaximusCoffee.com. Bäckstedt said he will also continue as a consultant with his former Garmin-Slipstream team. The Swede had struggled with a number of health issues during his career, including a serious knee injury, melanoma, and a separated shoulder and broken collarbone.[9]

On 13 November 2010, Bäckstedt announced at the UK Youth Centenary Gala that he would be coming out of retirement to lead the UK Youth Cycling Team along with Nigel Mansell and his sons.[10]

Bäckstedt rode for the MG Maxifuel team in 2013. Prior to round 8 of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series at Canary Wharf on June 6, 2013, he once again announced he was retiring and that the race would be his final one in professional road racing, his intention being to continue competing in triathlon and Ironman Triathlon events.

Personal life

Bäckstedt is married to a British former cyclist, Megan Hughes. They live in Wales,[11] moving there from Zulte, Belgium.[2] They have two daughters.[12] Bäckstedt said: "We used to come back here [to Wales] every time I had a break. I prefer it to Belgium. You can ride 30 miles between villages here, whereas in Belgium you were stopping for traffic lights."[11]

His sister Cecilia is also a racing cyclist.[13]

Bäckstedt runs a coffee business with franchises in the United States and Sweden. Proceeds from the business support Swedish cycling.[12] In 2013 he joined Declan Quigley to commentate on the Tour of Britain for Eurosport.

On Friday, 29th April 2016, he had a 30 min chat with Roelof Du Toit whilst sat on a bus.

Palmarès

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1992
1st Sweden National Junior ITT
1993
1st Sweden National Junior Road Race
1st Sweden National Junior ITT
1st Sweden National Junior TTT
1995
Boland Bank Tour
Winner stages 4 & 7
1996
1st Overall Boland Bank Tour
Winner Prologue & Stage 5
2nd GP D'Isbergues
1997
1st GP D'Isbergues
3rd Overal Boland Bank Tour
1998
Tour de France
Winner stage 19
2nd Overall Tour of Sweden
Winner stage 4b
1st Sprints competition Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Duo Normand (with Jérôme Neuville)
1999
3rd Overall Tour Down Under
2000
2nd Sweden National Road Race
2002
1st Sweden National Road Race
1st GP Fayt le Franc
2003
Giro d'Italia
1st Intergiro competition winner
2nd stage 15
1st Sweden National ITT
1st Sweden National Road Race Team Relay
2nd Sweden National Road Race
2nd Nokere Koerse
2nd GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise
2004
1st Paris–Roubaix
2nd Gent–Wevelgem
2nd CSC Classic
2005
Tour de France
2nd Stage 7
2007
1st Sweden National Road Race
2008
Giro d'Italia
Winner TTT stage 1

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004.
  3. ↑ Vélo, France, undatec cutting.
  4. ↑ Lequipe.fr
  5. ↑ Letour.fr
  6. ↑ A cycling word for an old-style, tough Belgian rider who does best in the worst conditions.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived November 22, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Cyclingweekly.co.uk
  9. ↑ Velonews.com
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Cycling Weekly, UK, 22 November 2003.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pezcyclingnews.com
  13. ↑ Siteducyclisme.net

External links

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