‘Hey Maggy’ – The Bäckstedts and the separation of dad and director

“Hey Maggy, can you grab my rain bag?”

The shout comes from the steps of the Canyon-SRAM team bus ahead of the Classic Brugge-De Panne, and is directed the way of the team’s director, Magnus Bäckstedt. So far, so usual. Except the person standing on the steps is also a Backstedt, the team’s young star, Zoe.

The pair are father and daughter, and together form a partnership of former and future glories in a set of circumstances that’s undeniably weird, but also sort of wonderful.

Zoe isn’t one of those cool kids who habitually calls their parents by their first names. Rather, this is the necessary separation of work life and family life.

“When we’re here, I’m Maggy. When we’re within four walls and it’s just the two of us, then I’m dad,” Magnus, who won Paris-Roubaix in 2004, explains.

“When I’m standing up giving the pre-race briefing, I’m just a sports director and she’s just another rider. It’s good and healthy for us to have that boundary.”

For Zoe, the attitude is very much the same, even if she receives a gentle ribbing from her teammates from time to time in calling her dad by his ‘real’ name. In fact, the separation of the two roles comes so naturally that the ‘other’ one sort of melts away.

“Sometimes you kind of forget it’s your dad in the car or the meeting,” Zoe says. “You’re just kind of sat there like staring at what you have to do and taking in all the information – there’s so much information he can bring to every single race, even though he did the racing however long ago it was.”

That said, he is still ‘dad’, and not just to his own daughter.

“It’s nice when you’ve had a shit race – or even a good race – to have him there as ‘dad’ at the end, if you really need that hug. If you’re not feeling good ahead of the race or nervous or whatever, then you can just go to him as dad,” Zoe explains.

“Also for any of the girls, they can go to him as dad, and he’ll be there as well. He’s like the dad of the group but also the boss.”

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The situation gains another layer of complexity when you factor in a third Bäckstedt, Elynor, who rides for Lidl-Trek and was also racing in De Panne. They’re still only just getting to grips with all this; Magnus first directed Zoe at the Simac Ladies Tour late last season, and first directed Zoe as a rival to Elynor at the recent Ronde van Drenthe.

“It was, I guess, a little bit strange at points, when you see her on another team and you’re working against her,” Magnus admits.

“But we’ve done this since the girls were tiny. I’ve run teams where both the girls have been racing over the years, and I’ve had to sport direct them in a certain way for some time now. We’ve discussed all the potential scenarios of what can happen and I don’t see there being any problems.”

Classics dreams live on for the Bäckstedts

While Elynor has slotted into more of a support role at Lidl-Trek, big things are expected of Zoe, still only 19 and still in her infancy as a road rider. After gaining her first taste of the Classics last spring, these next few weeks leading to Paris-Roubaix, the race her dad won 20 years ago, represent a significant moment in her nascent career.

While Magnus plays down any sense of hope or expectation on his daughter’s – or should that be rider’s – shoulders, Zoe herself is brimming with enthusiasm.

“The whole Classics, the next few races, it’s Belgium, it’s France, it’s cobbles, it’s everything I love.”

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That much is emphasised by Magnus’ suggestion that Zoe came back from the cyclo-cross season “a little too early”, such was her eagerness to get stuck into the Classics. Magnus mentions Paris-Roubaix as the one that suits her the best, and there’s no hesitation when we ask Zoe about the race of her dreams.

“Roubaix. It’s flat, it’s cobbles, it’s the cobbles my dad won on. What more is there to say?”

At the finish of Brugge-De Panne, there were hugs between all the Bäckstedts, and that included a fourth. Megan – Magnus’ wife and the riders’ mother, herself a former pro cyclist – is here as well for the next couple of weeks.

“I just love it,” Magnus says. “The whole family is on the road for the bike races right now. To me, that’s so nice.”