Career
Born in Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, Bäckstedt began as a skier, selected for the national team when he was 14. Bäckstedt began his professional career in 1996, riding for Collstrop before moving to Palmans in 1997. In 2002 and 2003 he rode for Team Fakta where he was the strongest rider in 2003.
The two favourites, Peter van Petegem and Johan Museeuw dropped out after crashes, leaving Bäckstedt to sprint on the track at Roubaix against two others
He said: "He"s not a flahute. He"s not especially the fastest, but after 260km on the cobbles, it"s often the rider who feels freshest who wins."
In 2005 Bäckstedt moved to Liquigas-Bianchi, and came second on the 7th stage of the 2005 Tour de France.
He rode for Slipstream–Chipotle in 2008. He was eliminated in that year"s Tour de France for being too slow.
He said:
I had been going Oklahoma, and on that stage we decided to make it hard from the start because we were close enough to yellow to get the jersey.
The first 60km were up and down, but I was going fine. Then there was this fourth-category climb and about halfway up I was suddenly short of breath. lieutenant was like I shut down from the waist down.
I went straight out of the back.
I calmed down and got back on top of lieutenant There was 100km to go, but I went Oklahoma. I could see the numbers on the power meter and they were normal for the kind of effort you need to get to the finish on your own inside the time limit.
I think I would have made it too, but there was a real steep hill just before the finish and my breathing and legs went again. I ended up four minutes outside the cut-official
Bäckstedt announced his retirement from professional cycling on 6 February 2009, citing a desire to focus on managing his developmental cycling team, Cyclesport.se-MagnusMaximusCoffee.com.
Bäckstedt said he will also continue as a consultant with his former Garmin-Slipstream team The Swede had struggled with a number of health issues during his career, including a serious knee injury, melanoma, and a separated shoulder and broken collarbone. Bäckstedt rode for the MG Maxifuel team in 2013.
Prior to round 8 of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series at Canary Wharf on June 6, 2013, he once again announced he was retiring and that the race would be his final one in professional road racing, his intention being to continue competing in triathlon and Ironman Triathlon events.