Magnus Bäckstedt

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Magnus Bäckstedt
Magnus Backstedt.jpg
Personal information
Full name Magnus Bäckstedt
Nickname Magnus Maximus
Date of birth January 30, 1975 (1975-01-30) (age 34)
Country  Sweden
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight 94 kg (210 lb; 14.8 st)
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Classics specialist
Professional team(s)1
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
Infobox last updated on:
November 14, 2007

1 Team names given are those prevailing
at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Magnus Bäckstedt (born Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, 30 January 1975)[1] is a retired 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 1m93 (6ft 4in) tall and weighs 94kg (207lb)[3]. He is one of the biggest riders in professional cycling.

Bäckstedt began as a professional career in 1996[4], 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 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."[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10]

Contents

[edit] Private life

He is married to a British former international, Megan Hughes. They live in Wales[11], moving there from Zulte, near Waregem, in Belgium.[12] They have two daughters.[13] Backstedt 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."[14]

His sister, Cecilia, is also a racing cyclist.[15]

Bäckstedt runs a coffee business with franchises in the US and Sweden. Proceeds supporting Swedish cycling.[16]

[edit] 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
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


[edit] External links

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004
  2. ^ Vélo, France, undatec cutting
  3. ^ L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004
  4. ^ http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/CyclismeFicheCoureur324.html
  5. ^ http://www.letour.fr/stf/roubaix/2004/fr/
  6. ^ A cycling word for an old-style, tough Belgian rider who does best in the worst conditions.
  7. ^ L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004
  8. ^ "Backstedt Bound For Slipstream-Chipotle". londoncyclesport.com. August 7, 2007. http://londoncyclesport.com/news/article/mps/UAN/2968/v/1/sp/. Retrieved 2007-08-07. 
  9. ^ http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/South_Wales_with_Magnus_Backstedt_article_271438.html
  10. ^ http://velonews.com/article/87355/
  11. ^ Cycling Weekly, UK, 22 November 2003
  12. ^ L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004
  13. ^ http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6483
  14. ^ Cycling Weekly, UK, 22 November 2003
  15. ^ http://www.siteducyclisme.net/coureurfiche.php?coureurid=29350
  16. ^ http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6483