Great Britain’s Zoe Backstedt produced a superb ride to claim silver in the women’s time trial at the UCI World Road Championships in Montreal.

The 21-year-old Welsh rider could have opted to defend the under-23 title she won last year.

But instead she stepped up to elite level and finished 40.11 seconds behind defending champion Marlen Reusser of Switzerland, who retained her crown with a winning time of 50 minutes 24.44 seconds.

Backstedt, who started third from last, set the time to beat as she came home 5.43 secs quicker than Germany’s Franziska Koch, who eventually finished third.

Reusser, the final rider to start, was more than 10 seconds behind the Briton at the first checkpoint but the 35-year-old increased her pace to claim her second time-trial gold medal to add to last year’s victory in Rwanda.

The Swiss star, who has also won two world silvers and a bronze in the discipline, was the form rider going into the championships.

But Backstedt made her battle hard on a windy, technical course to secure just the third British medal in the discipline, with Emma Pooley taking gold in 2010 and bronze a year later.

The Briton, a former world junior and under-23 time trial champion, won both the women’s road race and time trial at this year’s British Championships.