When Magnus Backstedt broke his clavicle during the Tour of Qatar, few were those who thought he could come back to full fitness in time for the Spring Classics, and more importantly, Paris-Roubaix. However, the Swedish champion has built his career and reputation around looking on each hardship to fuel his inner strength.

Backstedt returned to racing with the GP Eroica in Italy, where he completed 100 km. He then rode through Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo with confidence that each day of racing would bring his form at the right time.

“Sometimes you have to allow yourself the time to play that waiting game and allow the form to come,” said Magnus. “I got a call at the last minute to go and do Criterium International. So I hopped in the car and drove down to do that. I had recovered well from Milan-San Remo and just felt like I needed some more good racing in my legs.”

More recently, Backstedt went into the final time trial of the Three Days of De Panne in 18th place overall. Halfway into the time trial, Backstedt was under 5 seconds slower than the current leader. He dug deep and went harder, securing the second fastest time of the day. His effort moved him up to finish De Panne 8th overall. Afterwards he was nothing but energized.

“I got the time check in my ear and just decided to put the hammer down and see what was in the tank. I had one of those time trials where the bike was just moving itself,” said Magnus. “I didn’t feel great on my warm up. That’s the way it goes sometimes, things click into place when you are least expecting them. This result was so so important in terms of confidence and self belief. It’s fine to look at your power figures from training, but another thing altogether to record results like this so close to your big objective.”

“Looking ahead, I am going into Flanders and Roubaix at 100% for the first time in a few years,” he continued. “Flanders will be a test. I will see how the legs are going when I get in there. Roubaix is my goal. It’s my race.”

“I have my new Roubaix bike that Jim Felt and his team have been working on since our meeting at Interbike last year. It looks great and I will take it out for a test on the stones next week,” said Magnus.

The weather is one more thing Magnus hopes to have on his side. “I like it raining and cold. We haven’t had classic Paris-Roubaix weather for a few years,” he said. “There’s something about waking up on the morning of Roubaix, looking out the window and seeing rain! It just makes the eyes glow red and puts a smile on the face.”