Magnus Bäckstedt

Magnus Bäckstedt

Personal information
Full name	Magnus Bäckstedt
Nickname	Magnus Maximus
Born	30 January 1975 (1975-01-30) (age 36)  Sweden
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	94 kg (210 lb; 14.8 st)
Team information
Current team	UK Youth
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1996–1997 1998–2001 2002–2003 2004 2005–2007 2008	Collstrop-Palmans Crédit Agricole Team Fakta Alessio-Bianchi Liquigas Garmin-Chipotle
Major wins
Paris–Roubaix (2004) Tour de France, 1 stage (1998)
Infobox last updated on 14 November 2007

Magnus Bäckstedt (born Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, 30 January 1975)^[1] is a Swedish professional road bicycle racer.

He began as a skier, selected for the national team when he was 14.^[2] His greatest achievement in cycling is winning Paris–Roubaix in 2004. Bäckstedt is 1m 93 (6 ft 4in) tall and weighs 94 kg (207 lb).^[1] He was one of the biggest riders in professional cycling.

Bäckstedt began his professional career in 1996,^[3] riding for Collstrop before moving to Palmans in 1997. In 1998, having switched to GAN, Bäckstedt came seventh in 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.^[4] The manager of Crédit Agricole, Roger Legeay, had predicted that Bäckstedt would one day win the race. He said: "He's not a flahute.^[5] He's not especially the fastest, but after 260km on the cobbles, it's often the rider who feels freshest who wins."^[1]

In 2005 Bäckstedt moved to Liquigas-Bianchi, and came second on the 7th stage of the 2005 Tour de France. He rode for Garmin-Chipotle in 2008.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8]

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.

Private life

Bäckstedt is married to a British former international, Megan Hughes. They live in Wales,^[9] moving there from Zulte, near Waregem, in Belgium.^[1] They have two daughters.^[10] 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."^[9]

His sister Cecilia is also a racing cyclist.^[11]

Bäckstedt runs a coffee business with franchises in the US and Sweden. Proceeds from the business support Swedish cycling.^[10]

Palmarès

1996

1st Stage Boland Bank Tour

1st Stage Boland Bank Tour

2nd GP D'Isbergues

1997

1st GP D'Isbergues

1998

1st Stage 19 Tour de France

1st Tour of Sweden

1st Sprints competition Four days of Dunkirk

2nd Overall Postgiro

1st Stage 4B

1st Duo Normand (with Jérôme Neuville)

2000

2nd National Road Race championship

2002

1st  Sweden National Road Race champion

1st GP Fayt le Franc

2003

1st  Sweden National time trial champion

1st Intergiro competition winner Giro d'Italia

2nd Sweden National Championships

2nd Nokere-Koerse

2nd GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise

2004

1st Paris–Roubaix

2nd Gent–Wevelgem

2nd CSC Classic

2005

2nd Stage 7 Tour de France

2007

1st  Sweden National champion

2008

1st Stage 1 TTT Giro d'Italia

2nd Stage 3B, Three Days of de Panne

External links

• Official website
• Danish Cycle Union profile
• Velobios profile

Sporting positions
Preceded by Peter van Petegem	Winner of Paris–Roubaix 2004	Succeeded by Tom Boonen

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004.
2. ^ Vélo, France, undatec cutting.
3. ^ Lequipe.fr
4. ^ Letour.fr
5. ^ A cycling word for an old-style, tough Belgian rider who does best in the worst conditions.
6. ^ "Backstedt Bound For Slipstream-Chipotle". londoncyclesport.com. 7 August 2007. http://londoncyclesport.com/news/article/mps/UAN/2968/v/1/sp/. Retrieved 2007-08-07. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Cyclingweekly.co.uk
8. ^ Velonews.com
9. ^ ^{a b} Cycling Weekly, UK, 22 November 2003.
10. ^ ^{a b} Pezcyclingnews.com
11. ^ Siteducyclisme.net

Persondata
Name	Bäckstedt, Magnus
Alternative names
Short description	Road bicycle racer
Date of birth	1975-01-30
Place of birth	Linköping, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death