Great Britain duo Zoe Backstedt and Joshua Tarling claimed a pair of junior time trial gold medals at the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong.
Seventeen-year-old Backstedt went into the 2022 Championships aiming to build on her silver medal from last year's junior time trial and dominated the field with a time of 18:26.78.
Backstedt - who is also the reigning junior road race world champion - averaged a speed of 45.9km/h to storm to the gold medal in the 14.1km course, finishing 1:35.58 clear of Germany's Justyna Czapla in second place. Belgium's Febe Jooris took home the bronze.
"I came into it knowing that the climb was going to be tough, and being the last person off I'd already seen some times at the halfway point and at the finish," Backstedt told UCI's media channels.
"I was watching my Wahoo when I was riding, I was 10 and a half minutes over the climb and I was like 'Okay, I should be up'. I just kept pushing and pushing. I don't know what to say!
"One of my biggest goals of the season was trying to win this and one-up from last year. I'm so happy I was able to do it. I did so much work this season nailing the time on the bike, replicating the course, I'm so happy it paid off."
🥈 2021
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) September 20, 2022
🥇 2022
🇬🇧 Zoe Backstedt & Joshua Tarling 🇬🇧#Wollongong2022 pic.twitter.com/3dblynQWSH
Following Backstedt's success, 18-year-old Tarling was also seeking to go one better than his men's silver medal in 2021 and did so with a stellar ride to take home the world title.
Tarling finished with 34:59.26 on the clock after the 28.8km race to clinch the gold medal, with home favourite Hamish McKenzie ending up 19.19 seconds behind the Brit in the silver medal position.
Emil Herzog of Germany finished in third place - 33.45 seconds worse off than Tarling - and the teenager was in disbelief after donning the rainbow stripes at the top of the podium.
"It definitely hasn't sunk in yet," Tarling said. "It just feels like a relief, there has been so much hard work and I was a bit annoyed after last year so I really wanted it!
"I thought I was going okay, but I think I took it a bit too easy so I had to kick for the last few sections in the tailwind, I'm not used to tailwind down that last straight!
"It was mainly about the corners. It's awesome, the coaches really deserve it and everyone really deserves it in GB so really proud."
Backstedt and Tarling's titles in Wollongong mean that GB now have three medals to boast from the 2022 World Championships after Ethan Hayter won bronze in the men's Under-23 time trial.
Ben Knapton
