Interbike: Bäckstedt learns to adjust to celebrity status

by VeloNews.com

• October 07, 2004
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“That last shot turned out like crap,” the shop owner from Ohio said. “Can we take another one?”

Towering over the shop owner and his mechanic, Magnus Bäckstedt rested his arms over the shoulders of the two men and smiled.

“Thank you! And congratulations on Paris-Roubaix!”

“Thank you,” Bäckstedt said and waved.

“You know, I’m just not used to this,” he said, ducking out of a booth at the Interbike Trade Show in Las Vegas. “It’s great, but I’m not even too sure how I’m supposed to respond when they tell me what a great rider I am.”

Bäckstedt said he has been somewhat overwhelmed by this, his first trip to Interbike – indeed, his first trip to the United States – to visit sponsors, check in with friends and spend a healthy dose of face time with fans.

“Bianchi ordered something like 800 posters,” the Swede noted. “They were all gone in an hour! I think I signed all of them, too. It’s a surprise to see the interest so high in cycling here.”

Of course, at six feet four inches and 90 kilos, Bäckstedt has alwaysbeen something of a standout in the peloton, but it wasn’t until afterhis spectacular win at this year’s Paris-Roubaix (see “Bäckstedt a big surprise at Paris-Roubaix”) that he became known to even the most casual of cycling fans.

“As far as one-day races go, this one is a dream come true,” he said of his fourth try at the Hell of the North. “If you’re going to win a World Cup, this is definitely the one to do.”

The first inkling of his celebrity status came in a form he most appreciates.

“My wife’s cousins came over from Wales to watch the race,” he said. “They brought a big group with them… lots of kids, too. A few days afterward, they brought the whole bunch over to visit and they thought that maybe I could spend 10 or 20 minutes, but instead we went for a good 50km ride together and I got a chance to ride at the front with everyone and chat a bit. The response was great and I think it convinced a couple of those kids to take up the sport… That’s what I like. At the end of the day, that’s the thing I want to do.”

While the Bianchi-Alessio rider treasures his win at Roubaix, he describes the rest of his season as something of a wash.

“I was not that happy with it,” he said. “I struggled with back pain and didn’t manage to meet any of my personal goals… but then, Paris-Roubaix helped make it a good year.”

With that highlight on his race résumé, Bäckstedt caught the attention of several teams and for next season he and teammate Marcus Ljungqvist are moving over to the newly resurrected Liquigas team.

“I signed a two-year deal and the sponsor has jumped in for four,” he said. “It’ll be a good move.”

Although he’s switching teams, Bäckstedt notes that he gets to continue his relationship with his bike sponsor, Bianchi.

“It’s nice because it’s a Swedish company in a way,” he said. “The owner, despite his name – Tony Grimaldi – was born in Sweden, lives in Sweden and his company has always had a tradition of having at least a few Swedish riders on the team.”

The 29-year-old Bäckstedt said he is looking forward to the new season.

“Of course, Paris-Roubaix is a hard act to follow,” he said, “but I want to improve on the rest of the season, too: To do well in the classics and – hopefully to repeat at Paris Roubaix – and then to win the Swedish national championship and win a stage at the Tour de France, wearing the national jersey.”

One thing he won’t do is take on both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, like he did this year.

“I can’t do it,” he said. “It’s too much to ride the classics, go to the Giro and then go off to the Tour. Next year, I will try to rest and recover after the spring races and come into the Tour in top form.”

Bäckstedt’s form suffered in 2004 largely because of recurring back pain. It’s problem he attributed to a pair of early season crashes that adversely affected support muscles in his back and abdomen.

“The muscles had essentially atrophied as I tried to recover from the two crashes,” he said. “It threw me off in a lot of ways, changed position on the bike and just started a string of problems. Now, I’m going to the gym and working carefully to build my form again.”

Bäckstedt also joins Stefano Garzelli and Dario Cioni, the co-leaders of the new Italian super-team, one of the 20 competing in the new ProTour. Bäckstedt said he’s not entirely certain of how the shake-up of pro cycling will ultimately affect the sport.

“To be honest, I have no idea what it will do,” Bäckstedt said. “It could the best thing that ever happened to professional cycling, or it could be the worst thing that ever happened to professional cycling.

“One thing it will do is make a bigger distinction between professional and what used to be amateur teams,” he said. “There are times when you see riders from lower division teams taking big risks – safety risks – that most of us wouldn’t, because the race they happen to be in offers them such an opportunity… but you can’t take risks like that and hope to continue a career for very long.”

But all of that is in the future. Right now, Bäckstedt is getting ready to head back to the home in Wales he shares with his wife, Megan, and their two daughters, the youngest just a week old.

“I miss her a lot,” he said. “It’s been a good time here, but I do want to get home to the family.”

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