Zoe Backstedt: Women’s cycling will be ‘unstoppable’ with TV boost

British champion Zoe Backstedt says women’s cycling will be “unstoppable” if it gets full television coverage for races such as the recent Tour de France (TdF) Femmes.

The 21-year-old Welsh rider made her highly anticipated TdF Femmes debut last week, riding for Canyon-SRAM in support of team-mate Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, who finished second behind champion Demi Vollering.

“There was a lot of screaming and shouting about the women’s Tour de France this year, and it was incredible to see,” said Backstedt.

“The only thing we need from now on is full coverage line to line.”

Only three of the nine stages of this year’s race were broadcast live in their entirety.

Backstedt contends that on a number of days, the key moments were “already done by the time the coverage happened”.

“Then you can’t watch us racing – you can’t watch us being our best and showing off the best part of the race,” she added.

“I think once we finally get full coverage of the race, then we’re going to be unstoppable, 100%.”

Backstedt’s TdF Femmes debut followed exceptional performances throughout 2026.

She had already won British road race and time trial titles plus a sprint stage at the Tour de Suisse Femmes, and retained the 2026 Baloise Ladies Tour title a year after becoming the youngest winner of the race.

On Wednesday, she will target more success when the 2026 Tour of Britain Women begins, as she aims to use her TdF Femmes experience to good effect.

Backstedt delivered a standout ride in the time trial on stage four but missed out on the podium after finishing a close fourth, just two seconds behind Vollering.

“It was maybe not the result I wanted or hoped for,” she said.

“I have high expectations of myself and I really wanted to do at least a podium. So to say I want a podium but get fourth, it’s super close. But it is what it is. It was the legs on the day, and I think coming around to it, it’s still a really, really good result.”