Great Britain delivered a sensational show of skill, determination and teamwork to take the team relay world title on day one of the 2025 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in France, after taking second place for the last two years.
Last year’s under-23 women’s champion Zoe Backstedt kicked off proceedings as the only female starter, delivering her usual impressive technique to lay down a good ride. Backstedt crossed the line in ninth place, 47 seconds behind leaders Italy who were joined in the front bunch by France and the USA.
Handing over to Milo Wills, the British rider pushed hard on his debut race, passing Xaydee van Sinaey (Belgium), Kasuga Watabe (Japan) and Lorena Patiño Villanueva (Spain) to get into sixth place. In the final few metres of his lap, Wills managed to overtake one more rider, Barbora Bukovská (Czechia) to pass the mantel to Zoe Roche with Great Britain in fifth place, 1:15 behind new leaders France.
Junior women’s debutant Roche put in a composed ride to hold the pace well, dropping just slightly behind Belgium into sixth. The home nation maintained their lead heading into lap four, 13 seconds ahead of the chasers. Roche was just pipped in the changeover area by Lucie Grohová of Czechia to be pushed into seventh place as Oscar Amey took the reins for lap four.
Junior national champion Amey headed into a battle for space between Czechia, Great Britain and Canada, pushing through his rivals to fifth place in an attempt to reel Belgium back in.
With a large gap to the podium, Amey was seemingly unstoppable, delivering a blistering ride that went on to see him fly past Belgium into fourth place with a 10 second lead. With less than half a lap to go, he continued to blitz through the course, making up over 30 seconds to put him in second position just ahead of Italy and 29 seconds behind new leader USA.
Cat Ferguson flew out of the changeover area at pace, finding herself neck and neck with Italy fighting between second and third place for the majority of the course. The USA continued a good 20 second lead, while just two seconds separated Italy and Great Britian as they attempted to make ground on the leader.
Their efforts were rewarded as the gaps between the podium spots continued to diminish, with the USA just seven seconds ahead of its chasers as Ferguson handed over to Great Britain’s final rider, Thomas Mein.
Mein took the opportunity that his team had built up for him with gusto and immediately put the power down to sneak ahead Italy into the silver medal position. Within the first section of the course, Mein had pulled USA’s Henry Coote right back and was on his wheel, with just one second separating them.
With no signs of slowing down, Mein overtook Coote and began to slowly open the gap up to an impressive eight seconds. A second wind from Coote saw the gap brought back to a tight two seconds, but it wasn’t enough to keep Mein at bay. Mein crossed the finish line in style to be greeted by his ecstatic teammates as Great Britain won the team relay world title for the first time ever.
Reflecting on the race and the team's win, Mein said:
“I was feeling a bit nervous as there was quite a lot of elite riders on the last lap so it wasn’t going to be an easy ride home. As soon as I went I forgot about them and was looking ahead. There was more crowd than I’ve seen in previous years so it was a great atmosphere when you’re out on the course.
“I had two in front, some wheels to chase but it was just about trying to hit every line correctly like we did in practice and trying to be smooth with it, to not get full of the pressure of last lap.
“Heading over the finish line first was an incredible feeling, knowing how hard we worked and how well as a team and to see my dad at the finish line – amazing.”
