Elynor Backstedt signs first professional contract with Trek-Segafredo

Elynor Backstedt has signed her first professional contract with Trek-Segafredo.

The Brit will step up to the top tier of women's cycling with a three-year contract, and will race alongside the likes of compatriot Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk.

>>> Elynor Backstedt: ‘On a course like this you never know what can happen – I almost didn’t make it round’

The 17-year-old has performed well at the 2019 Yorkshire Road World Championships in the week leading up to her signing for Trek-Segafredo, taking the bronze medal in the junior women's time trial and finishing fifth in the road race.

One of her biggest results to date was winning the junior women's edition of Ghent-Wevelgem, beating Megan Jastrab, who won the junior women's road race at the Yorkshire Worlds.

Commenting on the news, Backstedt said: "I'm really excited to be joining Trek-Segafredo from the 2020 season, I'm really looking forward to learning and expanding my knowledge and the fact that they really help out the women's peloton makes me really excited. I can't wait to get started."

Backstedt comes from a strong cycling pedigree, with her Swedish father Magnus Backstedt a professional racer for 18 years; his biggest victories including winning Paris-Roubaix in 2004 as well as taking a stage of the Tour de France in 1998.

Her mother is former British cyclist Megan Hughes, who won the British National Championships road race in 1998 and went on to represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998.

The family live in Wales, having moved from Zulte in Belgium, with Elynor having a younger sister, Cecilia, who also races.

Elynor Backstedt is the second British youngster Trek-Segafredo have signed this year, as their men's team have captured the signature of 21-year-old Charlie Quarterman, who came 14th in the U23 men's time trial at the Yorkshire World Championships.