Zoe Bäckstedt and her father Magnus Bäckstedt will no longer work for the same team in 2025 after the former Paris-Roubaix winner departed Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and joined Cofidis Women.
The Bäckstedt pair joined forces at the German team in 2023 after Zoe made a mid-season transfer from EF Education-TIBCO-SVB and joined Magnus, who started at Canyon-SRAM as the lead Sport Director at the beginning of the same season.
With her sister Elynor also racing on a different team at UAE ADQ in 2025, Zoe Bäckstedt's reaction was only positive when her dad informed her they would no longer be teammates.
"He told me a while ago. I was on holiday actually, and he called me up and just told me that he wasn't going to be working with me for the 'cross season as much and that he was moving teams. It's not that I can do anything about it, it's not my job, It's his job," Backstedt told Cyclingnews at Canyon-SRAM's December training camp in Portugal.
"When I found out that he was also going to Cofidis, I was super happy for him and it's cool to see him working, speaking French all the time in meetings. You sit there and watch him in a meeting and his brain is just [whirring] and there's smoke coming out of his ears thinking of things. I think he's happy."
It will be a step down from WorldTour-level to women's cycling's new ProTeam ranks at Cofidis for Magnus Bäckstedt but he was excited about the challenge when officially announced at the start of December.
"Cofidis is a prestigious team, well known in the world of cycling. The challenge with the women's team is exciting. I will do everything to contribute and continue to build an environment that is favourable to the development of female riders," he said.
"I want to bring my experience, in the classics of course but also in all the races where I will be asked to go to allow the team to grow and reach the UCI World Tour."
Bäckstedt began falling out of favour before the Tour de France Femmes, which Canyon-SRAM and Kasia Niewiadoma went on to win without him in the car. Daniel Benson first reported the fallout on his Substack as the Swede revealed that disagreements with team manager Ronny Lauke over tactics led to him removing himself from the Tour.
He was replaced by Slovakian assistant DS Adam Szabo at the race, whose work had primarily been with Canyon-SRAM generation - the team's development side. Since Bäckstedt's departure has been announced, Lauke has confirmed that Szabo will now make a step up.
"We have changed the structure a little bit, Adam [Szabo] has become the Head of Sport. He has run the Generation team for the last three years and has now stepped up," Lauke told Cyclingnews.
"The purpose is to combine the generation team and the WorldTour team nearer so that both work closer and are more aligned."
With Magnus Bäckstedt leaving and Brit Dani Christmas also announcing she would be stepping away from Canyon-SRAM in November, there's been a big change to the staff structure at the reigning Tour de France Femmes winning team.
"[Szabo] will have help from Davide Arzeni, who has come from Valkar-Travel & Service, and UAE ADQ, Steffen Radochla, who was a sprinter in his cycling career and has worked for Bora-Hansgrohe and for the last three years with Ceratizit-WNT," said Lauke.
"We have André Schultze, who has also worked with Bora-Hansgrohe before as sports director and now part-time with us for two years.
"Then we have Beth [Duryea] who is also sometimes in the car," alongside being the team's marketing and communications manager and press officer. "But only on very rare occasions, and mostly she decides when she wants to be in because she has other duties. That's our new structure on the World Tour team."
