Teenager Zoe Bäckstedt, who won the U23 silver medal at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships, will make her Pro Classics debut on opening weekend later this month.

The 18-year-old won the junior road race and time trial titles at the World Championships last September.

The EF Education-Tibco-SVB rider is not ready for a break yet and will compete in her first classics on opening weekend, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 25 and then Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne a day later.

"I'm still in good shape right now, so it doesn't make sense to take some time off, get out of shape, and then get back into shape again. I want to help the team as much as I can and that's my role."

"I've been preparing for the cyclocross season, so I haven't been in the recs much. I ran a few classics as a junior, but not much."

At the Cyclocross World Championships, she was part of the British team that finished second in the mixed team relay and won a silver medal in the U23 women's race behind Shirin van Unrooy.

Despite being more than two years younger than van Unrooy, it was Beckstedt who held off the main contender by a few seconds in the first half of the race.

Van Rooy's strength and experience ultimately won him the world title by 33 seconds over Beckstedt and nearly a minute more over third-place finisher Kristina Zemanova.

"I tried to hang on to the wheel for as long as possible," Beckstedt added. 'It was the only realistic way. I knew that if I got in front of her, one day she would pull me out again.

"I was impressed that she kept a very close gap for a while until she died a bit on the last lap. I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat her.

"Second place is a really great thing. You have to play to the end so that you don't die completely, so that you have something left to play for. I'm happy with today's result."

Beckstedt has won world titles in road and cyclo-cross and will be another multi-discipline rider with both seasons under his belt.

"The cyclocross dream, an elite world champ, is pretty cool, but first I need to see where cyclocross fits in my career," added Backstedt.

"If I can do what Wout (Van Aert) and Mathieu (Van der Poel) do and go to select races like the elite world championships and if I can make it to the Olympics, then maybe I can do that.

Beckstedt moved to Belgium for cyclocross this season and is looking to improve her cross abilities; after crashing at the UEC European Cyclocross Championships and finishing fifth, the 18-year-old showed her mettle and came close with two fourth-place finishes at the World Cup Elite She missed the podium.

"I've improved a lot since the season started," she said. I've learned that the best riders, like Cirin and Pac Petersen, are really strong. But with Pac and (Elite World Champion) Femme van Empel, I'm going into the elite."

"I've been working hard to get better and better,"

"I've been working hard to get better and better.

"You learn things at Rikon, and if you go out with them, you can keep up with their line.