Zoe Bäckstedt announces Red Bull athlete deal

Cyclo-cross, mountain bike, track and road star Zoe Bäckstedt has announced the exciting news of her new sponsorship agreement with the drinks company and marketing colossal, Red Bull.

The deal sees the Canyon-SRAM rider become an official Red Bull athlete, joining Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Anton Palzer (Bora-Hansgrohe) in representing the Austrian company in the WorldTour peloton.

Read more: Patrick Casey and Anatol Friedl become Red Bull's first junior cycling athletes

Announcing the news on Instagram, Bäckstedt kept her words short but sweet: "So... this happened." Many excited emojis and sponsor-correct hashtags later and the deal was out in the open, with the British rider sporting a goodie box from Red Bull that included caps, t-shirts and a can of Red Bull.

Oh, and of course, Bäckstedt was also presented with a brand-new Red Bull helmet, which she will wear in races for Canyon-SRAM in the coming years. As per her team's sponsorship deals, the helmet is manufactured by Giro, the same company that will make Van Aert's Red Bull lid now that Visma-Lease a Bike have switched from Lazer helmets.

Read more: Visma-Lease a Bike set to use Giro helmets on a 3-year deal

After losing the TV rights to the Mountain Bike World Cups last year, Red Bull has increasingly been making their presence felt in road cycling, with the Austrian company purchasing a controlling stake in the Bora-Hansgrohe WorldTeam at the beginning of the year.

Read more: Red Bull acquires controlling stake in Bora-Hansgrohe

Red Bull GmbH indirectly purchased 51% control of Bora-Hansgrohe's parent company RD Pro Cycling GmbH & Co KG and RD Beteiligungs GmbH, with the deal set to be ratified by the Federal Competition Authority on Friday.

Amongst Bora-Hansgrohe's ranks is Anton Palzer, who has been sponsored by Red Bull since his days as a skimo athlete.

"I got the chance with Red Bull ten years ago, and I think it's the one reason why I survived ten years in this world of sport," Palzer exclusively told GCN last season. "It's a great partner. It's a great sponsor, you will get great opportunities and the Red Bull Performance Centre is one of the best performance centres in the world.

Read more: Anton Palzer: If Chris Froome or Primož Roglič tried my SkiMo times, I'm sure they wouldn't survive this

Traditionally, the drinks company were more interested in extreme sports, but in recent years their attention has also turned to road cycling. Bäckstedt is the second athlete to sport the iconic blue, red and grey helmet in the women's road peloton.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has previously donned a Red Bull helmet made by Kask while racing off-road for Ineos Grenadiers, as does Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) in cyclo-cross and mountain bike events, whilst Bäckstedt's teammate Chloe Dygert has also been a Red Bull athlete in the past.

Heading into her first full season with Canyon-SRAM, Bäckstedt will hope to carry her fine form from the cyclo-cross fields onto the road. Over the winter, the British national cyclo-cross champion has won four races, and taken prestigious podium finishes at the elite level in the Dendermonde, Dublin and Zonhoven World Cups.

With her Red Bull helmet standing out from the pack in the peloton, Bäckstedt will be a marked woman in 2024 - more so than she already was - but it seems like only a matter of time before the 19-year-old takes her first professional road victory.