Cat Ferguson will not make her Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift debut this August after being diagnosed with two fractures in her ankle, her Movistar team has confirmed.

The 20-year-old crashed on the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia Women at the end of May, and has since been recovering at home.

Ferguson previously told Cycling Weekly that she was on the long list for this year's Tour, which begins in Lausanne on 1 August. She will now need "several weeks" to heal from her injuries, Movistar wrote in a statement, ruling her out of the race and this week's British Road Championships.

"Following the fall [Ferguson] suffered in the first stage of the Giro d'Italia Women, she was initially subjected to various tests to assess a possible traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple contusions," the team wrote.

"Upon her return home and during the three weeks that followed, despite showing progressive recovery, Cat's clinical progress was not as expected. For this reason, the diagnostic studies were expanded, which have ultimately revealed the existence of two fractures in the ankle.

"Cat will need several weeks of recovery to ensure proper consolidation of the fractured bones and adequate healing of the injuries. As a result, she will not be able to compete in the upcoming National Championships or in the Tour de France."

Ferguson herself posted an update on her Instagram stories saying she was "heartbroken" to miss the summer races.

She added that she she will now spend a minimum of three more weeks on crutches.

Ferguson enjoyed a promising start to the 2026 season. She opened the year with victory in the Spanish one-day Trofeo Llucmajor, before going on to win a stage of the Setmana Valenciana, and finish fourth at Omloop Nieuwsblad, her best-ever result in a cobbled Classic.

The rest of her Classics campaign, she told Cycling Weekly in April, brought "real disappointments"; she abandoned Paris-Roubaix after suffering from food poisoning, and “wanted a bit more” than her 21st place at In Flanders Fields-In Wevelgem.

Ferguson then returned to winning ways at the Navarra Classic in May, where she scored her third victory of the season. That was her last race before she withdrew from the Giro on stage one.

It is unknown when Ferguson will be available for team selection again. Last season, she earned her first WorldTour victory at the Tour of Britain Women, which starts on 19 August this year.

British rider Cat Ferguson will make her Giro d’Italia Women debut this weekend with her sights on taking first Grand Tour stage victory in the sprint finishes.

The 20-year-old, now in her second year with Movistar, will lead the Spanish team on the flat days, while her team-mate Marlen Reusser targets the general classification.

Held over nine stages, the race will be the longest of Ferguson’s young career. She made her Grand Tour debut at the seven-day Vuelta Femenina last May, where she scored two top-10 finishes.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, the former double junior world champion said her personal goal for her Giro debut is to “look for stages”.

“The Giro is hard, but then there are a lot of opportunities for sprints. I will be trying to do my best on the sprint stages,” she said.

The first of those days is expected to come on stage one into Ravenna, with stages two and six also both likely to end in sprints. Ferguson will face competition in the bunch from the most dominant sprinter of her era, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), as well as former world champion Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-SUEZ) and Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)

In preparation for the Giro, Ferguson has spent the past month training out of Andorra, “focusing on the basics,” she said.

She will also take her learnings from last year’s Vuelta Femenina into the race, in particular regarding fuelling for longer stage races, which she found to be a “baptism of fire”. “It’s not just a one-day race, it’s 10 days of carb-loading, and it’s very different to a junior stage race,” she said. “If you don’t manage to get that pasta down you at dinner, then the next day you really feel it.”

Ferguson opened 2026 with victory in the Spanish one-day Trofeo Llucmajor. She then went on to win a stage of the Setmana Valenciana, before finishing fourth at Omloop Nieuwsblad, her best-ever result in a cobbled Classic.

The rest of Ferguson's early season campaign, she said, brought “real disappointments”; she abandoned Paris-Roubaix after suffering from food poisoning, and “wanted a bit more” than her 21st place at In Flanders Fields-In Wevelgem.

“The Classics are just something else, and that’s what I’m continuing to learn,” she said. “Even having more of a physical ability doesn’t mean that it’s going to go right. I think a lot of the Classics is just positioning, and that’s something I’ve still not cracked.”

Following her Roubaix withdrawal, the 20-year-old returned to winning form at the Navarra Classic earlier this month, where she tallied her third victory of the year.

She now hopes she can continue that form into the Giro, and onwards to August’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Ferguson is yet to make her Tour debut, but is on Movistar’s long list for the race this year.

“It will be [dependent on] how I’m going around the Tour,” she said. “If anything happens between now and then, if I’m injured or something, that’s why we have this long list. All the team on the long list will do altitude with the team, and then from then we get selected.

“I think it’s a good system. It makes us hungry, and it makes us more competitive in a healthy way, so we can be the best team and the fairest team that goes to the Tour.”

The Giro d’Italia Women begins this Saturday 30 May in Cesenatico, and runs until its finish in Saluzzo on 7 June. You can find a full preview of the race in this week’s Cycling Weekly magazine, out now.

Britain's Cat Ferguson (Movistar) became the first double winner of the Navarra Women's Elite Classic on Thursday when she sprinted to victory at the head of a reduced bunch.

Based on Pamplona in northeast of Spain, the 1.Pro race covered a hilly 134km with nine classified muros – a southern European equivalent of the Tour of the Flanders, without the cobbles.

Ferguson led in an 18-rider sprint, with Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Fiona Mangan (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) placing second and third. Brits Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL) and Katie Scott (DAS Hutchinson) also finished in the top-10, sixth and eighth respectively.

It was a near-identical win to the one she took the year before, when the race was also reduced to a small, 16-rider group and Ferguson led in the sprint.

Her win at the Navarra Classic this year is the Yorkshire born rider's third of what has been a consistent season so far, following victory in her first race of the season at Mallorca's Trofeo Llucmajor, and then a stage of the Setmana Valenciana in February. It bodes well for her first participation in the Giro d'Italia Women later this month, which will see her using her fast finish to hunt out stage victories.

Ferguson wasn't the only Briton adding to their 2026 win tally yesterday; Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) was also victorious on stage one of the Flèche du Sud stage race in Luxembourg. He won the full bunch sprint in Stadtbredimus ahead of Roy Hoogendoorn (Metec Solarwatt p/b Mantle) and Tobias Risan Nakken (Drali-Repsol). It came at the end of a lumpy but short (94km) stage held over three laps around the town.

Just like Ferguson, this was Brennan's third victory of the year – he won a stage of the Tour Down Under in January and then Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in March. He picks up where countryman Thomas Mein left off in last year's Flèche du Sud; then riding for Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente, Mein rode consistently throughout, winning the third stage and finishing second on GC.

Brennan will wear the leader's jersey on Friday's second stage of the five-day race. He is next due to put his talent on show at the French four-day Boucles de Mayenne race, starting 28 May, before going on to race the Tour de Suisse in June and then the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour, in August.

Cat Ferguson doubled her season victory tally on Friday afternoon, dodging a crash in the closing kilometres to win stage two of the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.

The Brit, who also won her opening race day at the Trofeo Llucmajor last month, led through the final corner in Vila-Real and sprinted out of the saddle to hold off Jayco-AlUla’s Letizia Paternoster.

Ferguson was previously riding behind Lidl-Trek's Elisa Balsamo when the Italian slid out on a corner inside 2km to go. Fortunately, she braked to avoid crashing too, and placed herself at the front with team-mate Liane Lippert, who marshalled her into the stage's finale.

Speaking after her victory, the 19-year-old said: “It’s not just a win for me today, but the whole team. It was really a team effort.”

Ferguson's Movistar missed out on the decisive split on Thursday’s opening stage, in which their GC leader, Lippert, placed 26th – over a minute down on the day's winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez).

“Compared to yesterday, it felt like a new team almost, so we can be super, super proud of ourselves,” Ferguson said.

Asked to describe her victory, she said: “[Lidl-]Trek were leading out for what felt like forever, obviously chasing the breakaway. We were there just behind them. We were happy with our position, and then we just wanted to move up before the final big turn at about 2km to go.

“Then obviously there was the crash of Balsamo, which is a shame. I hope she’s ok. From then, Liane did the whole thing on the front, so big respect for her.”

Ferguson took the lead as she turned onto the final 200m of the finishing straight, where the barriers had collapsed due to high winds earlier in the afternoon. The region of eastern Spain where the race is taking place is currently under a wind warning.

Despite this, Ferguson said the gusts had little impact on the race. “The roads were pretty covered. I think it was more the attritional aspect of the up and down climbing that tired the legs today.”

The four-day Setmana Valenciana continues on Saturday with a third stage to La Nucía, before finishing in Valencia on Sunday. Stage one’s winner, Vollering, continues to lead the GC.

“In the last corner, for me, unfortunately I was delayed by a crash,” the Dutchwoman said afterwards. “But for the rest, luckily I stayed up, so I’m grateful for that.”

Cat Ferguson began her 2026 season with a commanding sprint victory on Sunday at the Trofeo Llucmajor one-day race in Mallorca, Spain.

The 19-year-old Brit, now in her second full year with WorldTour squad Movistar, came off the wheel of her team-mate Arlenis Sierra, and held off Lidl-Trek’s Clara Copponi down the finishing straight of the third-tier event.

The victory marked Ferguson’s sixth as a pro, and followed on from three last season, including her first at WorldTour level at the Tour of Britain Women.

Speaking after the finish line on Sunday, Ferguson said: “The team for sure was the key today, with the wind. The victory would not have been possible without all the girls’ efforts, which was exaggerated even more by the wind.”

The teenager came into the finish of the 134.8km race in an 11-rider lead group, which had torn off the peloton as an echelon. The Brit had two team-mates in the group – Arlenis Sierra and Aude Biannic – while UAE Team ADQ counted five riders at the front.

“100% the team and the team plan were the key,” said Ferguson. “We stayed calm, and we are the ones who made the race, and in the end, I think that tactic paid off.

“Arlenis was my final girl for the lead-out, and I’ve already learned so much from her in one race. She’s really someone I look up to, and she showed me just how to sprint. For sure, the win wouldn’t have been possible without her today.”

Ferguson will have the chance to extend her 100% record on Monday afternoon when she rides the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx, another third-tier Mallorcan one-day race.

The Brit’s spring calendar will then take her to WorldTour events Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Milan-San Remo Women, In Flanders Fields - in Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and the Giro d’Italia Women.

“The Giro is a big goal for me, and I hope I can improve to show that I’m good enough to go to the Tour [de France Femmes avec Zwift] as well because if so then that would become my main goal of the season,” Ferguson told Cycling Weekly last month.

“I’ve got to prove that I am one of the riders deserving of a place throughout the season, and show the team that I’m in good shape and that I can be an asset to them.”

Britain’s brightest talent Cat Ferguson is eyeing a Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift debut next year at the age of 20, having taken three wins in her first full year as a WorldTour professional.

The Movistar rider, who already counts five world titles across three disciplines on her palmarès, enjoyed an up-and-down 2025 season, with periods of good form interspersed by periods of overtraining and fatigue.

“I think the combination of my first altitude camps, not knowing my limits, having so much time to ride my bike, and the excitement of being a first year pro meant that I put myself into a hole,” she told CW. “I thought I could handle whatever and do a lot of training if I just fuelled more but that’s not the case and I went a bit too crazy.”

As she puts it, Ferguson “resurrected it a bit towards the end of the year” and won in her final race – a mountainous one-day race in southern Spain, an impressive result for a rider who has previously excelled on shorter, steeper climbs and flatter finishes. “That win proved to me that I can be more versatile than I previously thought, and that’s the rider I’d love to be,” she said.

Now, having already spent one winter training camp with Movistar preparing for the 2026 season, the Yorkshirewoman has set her sights on the biggest race of all. To get selected, though, she has to catch the eye of her team during June’s Giro d’Italia Women.

“Apart from Marlen [Reusser] and Liane [Lippert], everyone is a reserve. I’ll do the Giro before and however I do there will decide if I go to the Tour or not.

“The Giro is a big goal for me, and I hope I can improve to show that I’m good enough to go to the Tour as well because if so then that would become my main goal of the season.

“I’ve got to prove that I am one of the riders deserving of a place throughout the season, and show the team that I’m in good shape and that I can be an asset to them.”

Before the summer of stage racing, Ferguson’s first goals of the season will be the Classics. She opened her campaign last year with third place at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

“I didn’t expect to make it around Binda so to finish third was a surprise,” she said. “I definitely came away from the spring thinking that the Italian races – including Milan-San Remo – suited me more than I thought they did beforehand.

“I’m hoping this year with a good winter’s training behind me I can go to the Classics more prepared than last year. They’re definitely the hardest races in terms of positioning, and they were incredibly difficult for me last year because they were the first races of the year.

“But I definitely think my positioning improved throughout the season, so if I go to the Classics with better physical ability and a bit of luck – because that’s a big part of the Classics – then hopefully I can do well. The Classics are super exciting and the real pinnacle of cycling.”

Ferguson’s best run of form in 2025 came during her home race, June’s Tour of Britain Women. She won one stage and the points classification as she finished second overall.

That said, she spoke of the season not “being great physically in terms of progression” due to the aforementioned fatigue.

“I definitely made the biggest improvements mentally, with all the experience and knowledge that I gained being bigger than I ever thought,” she said. “But I still have way, way more to learn and I’ll continue making mistakes. But the ones I’ve already made I 100% won’t do again.”

After a dominant junior career, Ferguson turned pro with Movistar in the autumn of 2024, and won two pro races for the Spanish team in just seven race days before the season’s end. She is rated by many as the natural heir to her idol, Lizzie Deignan.

“I’m really enjoying it – it’s just incredible,” Ferguson said of life as a pro. “I even just appreciate living in a different country [Spain] and having a two-year rental contract. I find it incredible I get to live here for another year, to get to do this as long as I make it.

“People ask what my long term career goal is, and honestly a big goal of mine is just to keep doing cycling. I want to do it as long as my body lets me. It’s another reason to take everything slowly so that I can have a long career as it’s my dream job.”

British pro Cat Ferguson has decided to put her cyclo-cross and track racing on hold to focus on her road career.

The 19-year-old, a current world champion in the cyclo-cross mixed relay event and a double junior world champion on the track, will forgo both cyclo-cross and track programmes this winter, and instead use the time to train towards her second season with WorldTour team Movistar.

The decision, Ferguson explained, comes as a “trial” to see how she finds devoting herself to one discipline.

“I’ve grown up on lots of different bikes, and I really enjoyed that, and I would recommend that to anyone to try all different bikes,” she said. “I think, for me, road is my priority and also my favourite type of cycling. I was doing track and also cyclo-cross before, but I have made the decision for next year to just do road.

“It’s not that I’ll never come back to either of them. I’m 100% sure that I will come back to one of them. But for me, it was something I would have done eventually in my career, just focusing on one discipline, and I’ve chosen to do that now.”

Last winter, Ferguson rode eight cyclo-cross events, placing second at the British National Championships, and delaying the start of her road campaign to mid-March.

“My last cross season was definitely not what I’d hoped for,” she said, “and I didn’t want to end it, partly because I didn’t want to seem like I was giving up on it after a bad season, but within that season, I had no preparation for the races, and that’s not me.

“If I’m going to do something, I want to do it 100%, so for me it was either I really commit and do a full cyclo-cross calendar and start much earlier than I did last year, or I don’t do it and I fully focus on road,” the Brit added.

“If I miss it, and I still have the desire to do it and want to commit to it 100% as well, then I’ll do that next year.”

Ferguson is not the first multi-disciplinarian to trim down her racing commitments. Last winter, Tom Pidcock opted to skip the cyclo-cross season to prioritise the road, following his switch from Ineos Grenadiers to Q36.5 Pro Cycling. He went on to score his first Grand Tour podium at the Vuelta a España this month.

Other riders, like Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, have reduced their cyclo-cross calendars in recent years, while Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has not raced a mountain bike event since returning to the road this season.

Reflecting on her first full year as a pro, Ferguson said it’s been “what I’d hoped for” but also “much more challenging” than she anticipated.

“To be honest, I’ve found the times when I’ve had to race myself [as a leader] much more easy to deal with, but then when I’m racing with the team, and it’s pressure I’m putting on myself to perform for someone else, that’s something that I’m still learning to deal with,” she said.

Her results count a first WorldTour win on a stage of the Tour of Britain Women, victory at the one-day Navarra Classic, as well as third place at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and a string of top-10s.

The reigning junior world champion in the road race and time trial, Ferguson will travel to Rwanda later this week for the UCI Road World Championships, where she will take part in the under-23 women’s road race.

“Of course, I would love to be in the top five, that would probably be a goal,” she said. “I’ve never done an under-23 race, so I think there’s a lot of unknown things... The dynamic of the under-23 race is something new to me, and I’m really excited to see what it’s all about.”

The under-23 women’s road race will take place on 25 September.

The Tour of Britain Women will be five stages next year after the UCI agreed to a request from British Cycling to increase the length of the event.

The move comes as part of an increased effort to reach full parity with the men's equivalent after the national governing body took control of the two races, formerly managed by SweetSpot, early last year.

British Cycling confirmed the change when contacted by Cycling Weekly on Wednesday after it was previously announced that the women's race would move to an August slot on the calendar, bringing it closer to the men's event, which typically takes place in September.

"Bringing the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women up to five stages for 2026 is yet another step in creating parity between the men's and women's races - something which is fundamental to our major events vision," a British Cycling spokesperson said.

"When we took on the running of both races last year, we outlined our plans and were true to this commitment, therefore it was a no-brainer to increase prize money for the women’s race, as a first step.

"Following the hugely successful delivery of the 2025 edition of the race, we are really pleased to see our ambitious plans reflected in an increase to five stages from 2026, supported by the UCI, and we look forward to continuing to champion full parity throughout the Lloyd’s Tour of Britain races."

The men's race was cut to six stages in 2024 as a first step to reaching full parity, with British Cycling aiming to increase the women’s race to six in the coming years. FDJ-Suez's Ally Wollaston took the overall honours at the most recent edition of the women’s race, which concluded in Glasgow last month. Britain's Cat Ferguson finished second.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly last month, British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton was cautiously optimistic regarding the long-term future of the two Tours.

"We were really determined to deliver last year and grow the race and I think if you look at the Tour of Britain Women – just take the riders and the teams last year compared to the riders and the teams this year – it shows that people value racing in the UK," he said. "We need to be mindful of the business model – staging any bike race on the public highway is an expensive affair – but we're optimistic."

"Policing, safety, the public sector finances, people wanting to step forward as event organisers – it's really hard,” Dutton added. "At British Cycling we have a duty and responsibility to be part of the solution, but there is no magic wand to wave.

"What we will find is moving to a sustainable business model, we'll probably have to have some more tough conversations in the future… We've not got enough events with enough event organisers that are sustainable and that's just part of the overall challenge."

Cycling Weekly understands that details of this year's Tour of Britain Men will be released shortly. The race is expected to conclude in Cardiff to pay tribute to Geraint Thomas in what is set to be his final professional race before retirement.

The 2025 British National Championships begin on Thursday with a high-intensity time trial in Aberaeron, with the road race to follow on Sunday 29th June.

Ceredigion, the Welsh county set to host the Championships tomorrow, has a track-record of producing world class riders, including time-triallist Josh Tarling and Tour of Britain winner Stevie Williams. Now some of the best British riders will line up in the county to compete for eight national titles on offer.

Among those heading to Wales this weekend is three time British National Road Race Champion, Picnic PostNL rider Pfeiffer Georgi, who will be chasing a fourth title, with Anna Henderson of Lidl-Trek pushing for the top position after second place last year in Yorkshire.

“Nationals hold such a special meaning to me,” Pfeiffer said.

I know it won’t be easy, but I’m focused, motivated, and ready to give it everything I’ve got. The level of competition in British women’s road racing just keeps getting stronger, and that pushes me to raise my game every time I take to the start line.”

Another young rider set to cause her some fierce competition is Tour of Britain stage winner, Cat Ferguson. The Movistar rider scored her first WorldTour victory last month at the Tour of Britain, along with the points classification and jersey for best young rider.

In the men's race, Ethan Hayter is the rider to watch as he defends his 2024 national title. After recent success on the continent (including second place in the Baloise Belgium Tour overall), the Soudal Quick-Step rider will be chasing another win this year on home soil - in both the time trial, of which he is a previous champion, and the road race.

Vying to pip him to the post in the road race will be 2024 podium finishers Lewis Askey and Max Walker. Askey, who rides for Groupama-FDJ, has recently won his first two professional races, so clearly is a man in form.

The time trials take place in Abaeraeron, a place-name that supposedly, perhaps fittingly, derives from Aeron, the Welsh god of war. Riders will battle it out over a course that will take them over the hills to Cilau Aeron before a sharp, 3km-long ascent up Rhiw Goch and back into Aberaeron. Ferguson, Georgi and two-time champion Henderson are among the race favourites, with Hayter the favourite in the men’s after double British champion Josh Tarling crashed out of the Giro d’Italia.

The road race is a hillier affair, beginning by the sea in Aberystwyth and winding inland to Trawsgoed in a loop to be repeated three times in the women’s and five in the men’s, with each loop starting with a maximum gradient of 9.3%. The women will race a totalled distance of 128km (with an elevation gain of 1,839m) with the men’s an additional 60km.

Off the back of an impressive Tour of Britain, Ferguson looks in a stronger position to Georgi so far this season, but the latter has the experience. A battle anticipated in the men’s between Visma-Lease a Bike teammates Matthew Brennan and Ben Tulett, with Hayter surely involved too.

You can watch the British National Championships on the British Cycling Youtube channel,Discovery+ online and TNT Sports, plus a full highlights programme on Discovery+ and TNT Sports 2 at 7pm on Tuesday 1 July.

On Kelso’s cobbled square ahead of stage 3 of the 2025 Tour of Britain Women, Cat Ferguson tells Cycling Weekly that she’s desperate to win a stage on British soil. It's the only opportunity she'll get all year. The Movistar rider is keen to take advantage of the hilly route round the Scottish Borders, knowing that it’s probably her final chance to win a stage at this year's race.

What she didn’t expect was how the day would pan out. Heavy rain overnight had made the tarmac slippery, and the downpours intermittently came and went throughout the stage. What followed were several major crashes, including for race leader Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly), who was distanced before the race’s final climb. The rain made an already difficult race even more attritional - only the strongest would flourish.

After an attack from Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto) with 24km to go, a final selection of six was made. Ferguson was there alongside multiple track world champion and GC rival Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez). With everyone on the limit, 19-year-old sprung something of a surprise to win her first ever WorldTour race with Wollaston third behind another Brit Josie Nelson (Picnin-PostNL), as the clouds produced one final downpour.

“It's incredible. It's really more than I could have hoped for,” a clearly frozen but delighted Ferguson told Cycling Weekly after the finish.

It was logically expected that Wollaston, with her track pedigree, would be able to get the better of her rivals on the cobbled sprint finish. However, Ferguson still had the presence of mind to use momentum to her advantage in the last 200 metres.

“To win it in the way that we did is not what I expected. I wasn't sure I was going to get it to be honest,” Ferguson said.

“I knew that Ally's definitely a better sprinter than me. Obviously, in the intermediate sprint she beat me, so I was thinking it was going to be difficult to beat her. But, if I came in second wheel and launched first on the cobbles, then hopefully I could get a bit more momentum on her, and it worked.”

“This race was a big goal of mine. I really wanted to come in and have good form, something I feel like I've been lacking a little bit to be honest. The whole season was missing that spark, and in this race, I think I've found it. I've been feeling really good,” Ferguson added.

The final climb was fought-out by the riders who managed to avoid the crashes. With 56km left, around 15 riders came down on a single left-hand bend, including stage two winner Mara Roldan (Picnic-PostNL) and Faulkner. Nine riders in total pulled out of the race during the stage due to crashes and other injuries and issues. Ferguson was well positioned throughout and was expertly guided by her Movistar team.

“Unfortunately there was a lot of misfortune, and Faulkner was caught behind crashes and mechanicals about three times, so I'm feeling for her. But I managed to stay at the front out of trouble and I'm used to riding in the rain, being from the UK, so I think that definitely helped,” she said.

Ferguson has moved into the lead of the race, taking a three-second advantage over Wollaston ahead of the final circuit-style stage in Glasgow where the bonus seconds will decide the race.

“I’m very nervous. I didn't imagine myself in this position, so now we have a lot of work to do and planning to do on how we approach tomorrow. I only have a few seconds lead, and I think tomorrow there will be four sprints to gain time, so it's going to be a difficult one. But with the team we have, we're really motivated, so we'll do the best we can.”

Double junior world champion Cat Ferguson is set to make her debut at the Tour of Britain Women in June, British Cycling announced on Tuesday.

Ferguson, who hails from North Yorkshire, will lead Spanish WorldTour team Movistar in the four-day stage race which will take in her home county before heading north and into Scotland. The 19-year-old recently took her first win of the season at a rain-soaked Navarra Classic.

Alongside Ferguson, British Cycling revealed that Visma-Lease a Bike's rising star Imogen Wolff is also set to race. Yorkshire-born Wolff won a bronze medal in the junior time trial at last year's World Championships, and rode for the same British amateur team as the Movistar rider, Shibden Apex RT.

Wolff won a stage and the youth classification in her first race of the season, the Vuelta a Extremadura, and was recently praised by Marianne Vos for her role in the Dutch veteran’s recent stage win at La Vuelta Femenina.

Meanwhile, British Cycling also confirmed that Lidl-Trek's Lizzie Deignan will line up for one final outing at her home race before her retirement later this year. Deignan won the event’s predecessor, the Women’s Tour, on two previous occasions and took home the mountains jersey in last year’s race.

"I'm always happy to race the Tour of Britain Women," Deignan said. "I have such special memories from this race and over my career I have had a lot of success here. It's always a different feeling racing in front of home crowds so I hope we see lots of fans out cheering for the women's peloton over all four days.

"This will be my final Tour of Britain so it will be bittersweet but I am going to be surrounded by some incredible women as part of our Lidl-Trek team so I'm confident we can make it a good week and we will be motivated to achieve some nice results together."

Deignan will be joined by her Lidl-Trek teammate Anna Henderson who finished second last year. The duo raced together as part of the Great Britain Cycling Team in the 2024 edition of the race.

"I am really looking forward to racing the Tour of Britain Women again this year," Henderson said. "It's always special to race on home soil, and as a British rider, we don't have so many opportunities so I will be looking to make the most of this moment and hopefully, we will see lots of enthusiastic British cycling fans out on the roads to support us."

Sisters Zoe and Elynor Bäckstedt are also set to race for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and UAE Team ADQ respectively. Having finished 15th in Paris-Roubaix Femmes during the spring, Zoe will be making her debut at the race while Elynor will be taking part for a third time.

Alongside the raft of high profile British riders, Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) is also set to race. The Tour of Britain Women gets underway in Dalby Forest on 5 June.

The rain in Spain fell hard on Pamplona on Wednesday afternoon, to the delight of Cat Ferguson, who earned her first win of the season with Movistar.

The 19-year-old Brit sprinted to victory at the Navarra Classic – a lumpy one-day race held in the north of Spain. The success marked the double junior world champion’s first since starting her full-time pro contract this year, and her highest level win to date, ranked as a UCI 1.Pro.

“We knew it would be really hard, and the weather may be a bit unpredictable,” Ferguson told Esencia Ciclista post-race. “After the first couple of climbs it started to look really grey, with some thunder and lightning, and then it really started to rain.

“For me, that was the best moment of the race. I love it when it rains. I’m from Yorkshire in the UK and it rains there a lot – it really brings out the adrenaline and makes me feel like I’m racing and surviving even more. [It was] a really enjoyable race.”

The finish line scene was reminiscent of the Brit’s victory in the junior road race at the UCI World Championships last September. As she did beneath the downpour in Zurich, Switzerland, Ferguson raised both hands in the air on Wednesday, and saluted the sky as she crossed the line.

“I went maybe a little bit early,” she said of the bunch sprint, “and I was doubting myself in the last 100m. But I never looked back, and just kept going until the finish.

“The girls did an amazing job for me. We prepared really hard for this race, being a home race, and it feels really special to win. We went right past the service course at the beginning, and the girls did an amazing lead-out for me at the end. No one could even challenge us.”

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto’s Soraya Paladin finished second at the Navarra Classic, while Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) came third.

After winning two pro races as a stagiaire for Movistar at the end of last year, Ferguson’s first 1.Pro-level victory follows an impressive start to the season. The teenager earned a podium place in her debut WorldTour race this March, finishing third at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, before going on to score top 10s at De Brabantse Pijl and on two stages of La Vuelta Femenina.

The Yorkshire-born rider is down to race the Tour of Britain Women next month.

Hamish Armitt was never meant to become a professional cyclist. He had raced bikes for fun as a child, but put it on hold in his teenage years, choosing instead to focus on running. Despite being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 15, he became one of Britain’s best junior runners.

“When I was 17, I ran 14 minutes dead in the 5km, which was top five all-time at the time,” says the 22-year-old [Armitt remains the sixth-fastest UK under-20 of all time]. “I was very, very high-level at running. I won loads of Scottish titles all through the age groups.”

It was a trajectory that seemed to point straight to the Olympics. But years of underfuelling and the high-impact demands of running led to stress fractures in his feet and hips. “I realised my body couldn’t cope with all the running injuries,” he says. Forced to step away, he returned to the bike – and less than a year later, the Glaswegian signed his first professional contract.

No fewer than 12 Brits are taking their first steps into the pro ranks in 2025. A dozen new pros is a solid year by British standards, and includes four joining the men’s WorldTeam ranks: Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bob Donaldson (Jayco-Alula), Oli Stockwell (Bahrain-Victorious), and Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost). On the women’s side, Imogen Wolff has signed for Visma Lease a Bike, while Carys Lloyd and Cat Ferguson have both joined Movistar.

Armitt is among four Brits kicking off their pro careers at ProTeam level. He has signed for Novo Nordisk, a US-based UCI ProTeam made up of athletes with diabetes. Coming up through British Cycling’s talent system is the road more travelled for aspiring pros, but by no means the only one. While some young riders pen contracts as teenagers, others spend years racing abroad, passing through development teams into their early twenties.

Today, the number of Brits at cycling’s top level is roughly three times what it was 10 years ago, thanks to a network of different paths leading them there. Armitt’s, in particular, stands out as a case apart. The idea of a career in cycling only crossed his mind in the summer of 2023, when he stood roadside at the UCI World Championships in his home city of Glasgow. “I’d say that was the turning point,” he says, “but I was 21 at the time, and it’s quite a hard pathway when you’re that old.”

Alongside his running, Armitt had competed in triathlons, training between 10 and 20 hours a week on the bike. He took up bunch racing as a novice following the Glasgow Worlds, and began as a cat-four racer. “I was starting from scratch,” he says bluntly.

Soon, though, the events ticked by, Armitt collected more points, and he ended up joining a team, Project 1, who took him racing abroad. He admits that the step up was “a bit of a baptism of fire”. During one spring race in Italy, he threaded himself into the breakaway and attacked solo with 50km to go, eventually finishing 41st. “It was just stupid,” he remembers of the move, but where it failed in carrying him to victory, it succeeded in turning heads. “After that, I started getting loads and loads of attention from teams,” he says.

As a diabetic athlete, Novo Nordisk seemed a suitable home for Armitt. He reached out to the team himself, and was invited to a camp in July on the Franco-Italian border. “I did a test up the [Col de la] Madone, and I did 450 watts for 27 minutes. My 20-minute [power] is around 460,” he says. “Power-wise, I was a lot higher than most riders. But what I’m having to adapt to is I don’t have the experience of those guys, or the racecraft, or the efficiency.” These are areas he’s hoping to improve in his first season as a pro. “I’ve only been racing for a year,” he says. “I need to see how the next two years go, but I definitely want to progress into the WorldTour in the future, for sure.”

Carys Lloyd, four years Armitt’s junior, has already made it to the sport’s top level. Born on New Year’s Eve 2006, her first full day as an 18-year-old was also her first as a professional cyclist, the start date of a three-year deal with Movistar.

By virtue of her late birthday, she is the youngest rider across both the men’s and women’s WorldTours this season, and likely the youngest fully fledged pro cyclist ever. “I don’t think you can get younger than me, maybe by a few hours,” she smiles. “I looked up when Marianne Vos turned pro, and it was the year I was born. Technically, if you think about it in months, she’s been a pro longer than I’ve been alive. That’s quite scary, but it’s quite exciting at the same time.”

Lloyd was six years old when she began racing bikes. Unlike Armitt’s late awakening, though, she joined British Cycling’s regional school of racing as a teenager and later the national pathway as an under-16. “I did the endurance road and track programme,” she says.

Like Mark Cavendish and Laura Kenny, graduates of British Cycling’s academy before her, she split her time between the two disciplines, excelling particularly in the velodrome. In 2024, she won three gold medals at the Junior Track World Championships, and two at the Junior European Track Championships.

“The quality of riders we had in our year in Great Britain was really, really strong,” Lloyd says. The 18-year-old is one of three from her cohort who have leapt straight to the pro tier this year, alongside her Movistar teammate, junior road and time trial world champion Cat Ferguson, and Imogen Wolff, now of Visma-Lease a Bike.

“It’s quite crazy that two of my closest teammates have got a contract as well,” Lloyd says, “but I think it’s definitely that more juniors are getting signed early, and teams are starting to notice that you need to develop talent earlier, if you see it.”

Movistar picked up Lloyd so early, in fact, that she will need to take time out of racing in June to finish her A-levels. The teenager is studying maths, further maths and physics at sixth form in Maidstone. “[Movistar] have been really positive about school,” she says. “They said, ‘Just get your exams done, and then we can talk about racing.’ They were just really refreshing.”

Lloyd considers herself fortunate to have been part of the British Cycling academy. Only a handful of riders each year make the cut, and for those who don’t, or choose not to join, the path to the top can end up more winding, often with stints overseas. That was the case for six of the 12 British riders turning pro this year who were supported by the Rayner Foundation, a charity that gives grants to young Brits racing in Europe.

Oli Stockwell spent the last three years cutting his teeth in Italy with Cycling Team Friuli (CTF), an Italian feeder team of Bahrain Victorious, who he joined this season. “Rayner have been pretty amazing really, I think, for all the guys,” he says. “The advice they give you, you can’t beat it. Also, the cost side, they give a little bit, which for a lot of guys makes the difference. I know for me, when I first got to CTF, that probably made the difference.”

Born in Welwyn Garden City, Stockwell raced cyclo-cross and road as a child. He joined CTF when he was 20, relocating to Udine, 15 miles from the Slovenian border. The original plan was for him to turn pro last season, but an innocuous leg break on a training camp pushed his timeline back a year.

“[The team] were really good with me, and we kind of decided that it would be better to step back for a minute, to use a bit more time as an under-23 to develop and recover from the injury, and then step up later, which is now,” he says. “I feel like I’ve learned so much in the last three, four years [in the under-23 ranks].”

Now, like Lloyd, Armitt and the nine other Brits who have turned pro, Stockwell’s focus is on continuing to learn. Races are getting faster – the average men's WorldTour speed was 42.2kph (26.2mph) in 2024, the fastest in history – the best riders are breaking records with ease, and the level required to be competitive is higher than it's ever been.

The last Brit to win big in their first full season as pro was Josh Tarling, who claimed his first WorldTour victory at 19 years old at the Renewi Tour in 2023, weeks before becoming the European time trial champion. Might someone in this year’s cohort pull off a similar feat? The consensus, it’s clear, is that there’s no pressure to do so. “I think it will be a big step, but hopefully I’m ready,” says Stockwell. “I guess I’ll see.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 23rd January 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Double junior world champion Cat Ferguson is set to become one of the youngest competitors ever at Paris-Roubaix this April.

The 18-year-old is down to make her debut at the cobbled Monument, as part of her stacked road calendar this season, which opens at this month’s Milan-San Remo.

Revealing her programme to Cycling Weekly, Ferguson said she’s expecting a “big jump” in her first full year as a pro.

“It’s crazy,” the Movistar rider said. “I think it’s incredible to just be in the position I am, but to be doing a race like Roubaix, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to do that race.

“Also, Carys [Lloyd, Movistar] and Imogen [Wolff, Visma-Lease a Bike] are doing the race, so for the three of us to do a race like that in our first year as a pro together is really special. We’ve come through the ranks from under-14s and we’re now doing Paris-Roubaix at 18-years-old together. It’s going to be incredible. Hopefully I can make it to the velodrome – that’s my aim.”

Ferguson impressed the cycling world last autumn when she won two of her first four pro races, riding as a pre-contract stagiaire for Movistar. She also claimed both the junior road race and time trial titles at the UCI World Championships, becoming the first rider to complete the double since Zoe Bäckstedt in 2022.

Having raced cyclo-cross through the winter months, Ferguson’s road debut this year is set for Milan-San Remo, the inaugural edition for women, on 22 March. “We don’t know the route yet, it’s not actually released, but it’s probably the longest race of the year,” she said, adding with a laugh: “I’m not feeling fit enough yet to want to know how long it is.”

The 18-year-old’s programme will then see her compete in a string of one-day Classics, including Gent-Wevelgem, Flèche Wallone, and Brabantse Pijl, before turning to stage races in Spain, and the Lloyds Tour of Britain.

“I’m really looking forward to the Tour of Britain,” she said. “I don’t know the route for that, but I’m hoping there’s [a stage] in Yorkshire. Getting some friends and family out to watch would be really special. And it’s the only [WorldTour] race that there is for women in Britain, so I’m excited for it.”

Ferguson's programme for the latter half of the year is yet to be decided, but she said she feels “lucky” to be given such opportunities over the next few months.

“It’s a balance of wanting to push me and show me what the level is, with races like Roubaix, but also not absolutely hammering me and doing all the big races,” she said of her calendar. “It’s also a nice balance that I will do some smaller races, where hopefully I can be a little bit more at the front, or survive for a little bit longer.”

Paris-Roubaix Femmes will take place on 12 April, two weeks before Ferguson’s 19th birthday.

The biggest day of Cat Ferguson’s career so far began with an ungodly helping of rice. 

It was 5am when the 18-year-old’s alarm sounded in Zurich, Switzerland, two hours before the sun was set to rise. At 10am, she would start the junior road race at the UCI World Championships. It was the event Ferguson had thought about every day in the 13 months since she finished runner-up in Glasgow. First, though, under a blanket of darkness, she had to get through her breakfast of champions: a bowl of rice, measured out to six times the recommended portion size. 

“It’s hard when you’ve got to wake up and then chow down 400g of rice,” she says, laughing at the memory. “That’s the hardest bit.”

A month on, Ferguson’s sitting on a plastic chair opposite me remembering the day from inside London’s Lee Valley Velodrome. The road race in Zurich lasted fewer than two hours, and by midday, the teenager was crowned world champion. She’s dressed in her spoils from that morning – a rainbow jersey, which she chose to keep on after the photoshoot. The kit’s so new, she says, that it’s “still got the tags on”.

Ferguson’s road world title was her fourth in what she looks back on as a “perfect season” in 2024. It came two days after she won the time trial, securing a momentous double, and a month after she won two gold medals on the track. So supremely consistent was the Yorkshire-born teenager’s year that she didn’t finish off the podium in a race until September, earning two national titles and her first professional victories. 

Her agent, Jamie Barlow, has dubbed her a “generational talent” – “the phase gets passed around too much, but Cat really is one,” he said. Elsewhere, The Times called Ferguson “British cycling’s next star”. When I repeat these accolades to her, she turns bashful. “It’s a little bit surreal,” Ferguson says. “To me, I’m just a bike rider. It’s lovely that they’re saying those things about me, but I almost don’t believe it myself.”

After a standout first junior season last year, winning at 16 years old on her GB debut, Ferguson began 2024 with the aim of collecting her first rainbow jersey. She almost had one as early as February, when five seconds separated her from gold at the Cyclocross World Championships.

Her next opportunity would be the Track World Championships, and by the time it came around in August, Ferguson was on a hot streak. She had won one-day and stage races at will, finding time to sit her A-Level exams in the spring. Then came the trip to the velodrome in Louyang, China, where she had two brushes with disaster.

The first came in the team pursuit, when she accidentally unclipped her foot in qualifying and crashed, hoping for a restart. “They didn’t give us one. I just sat there at the side of the track,” she chuckles at the memory. Twenty-four hours later, all was forgotten when she and her teammates rode to gold, her first world title, in a world-record time. “It was everything that us four could have dreamed of,” she says.

Ferguson’s second close call came in the Omnium. It’s a day she has since described as “one of the most mentally challenging” of her career. She crashed hard in the penultimate event, the elimination race, and partially dislocated her shoulder. Recounting the story, she lifts her hand to the joint. “I just sort of slipped it back in,” she smiles, leaving out the detail that she then got back on her bike and won.

“I didn’t even have time to go put on a new skin suit,” she says. “I was racing the points race with holes everywhere.” Bloody kneed, she banked her second world title, and raised her arms skywards.

Ferguson’s whole season, in reality, was geared towards two days in Zurich. Never before had she felt expectation like she did going into the Road World Championships, most of it from herself. She recalls the time trial last year, when her nerves grew so intense she threw up mid-race – “I was physically sick onto my arms” – eventually finishing 10th. 

This year was a different story. In training, the Brit rode simulation after simulation of the route along Lake Zurich, and turned up on the day alongside teammate Imogen Wolff, who helped calm her down. “We were just pretending that we weren’t where we were, that we were somewhere else on holiday,” Ferguson laughs. The happy thoughts worked, and she scored her third rainbow jersey with a comfortable 35-second buffer. 

“I didn’t just win, but I won quite well,” she says modestly. There was no time for celebration, though. Two sleeps later, she was back on the start line, this time in the event she wanted most.

Given her form, Ferguson was always the clear favourite for the road race. “It was almost a good thing I came second in Glasgow,” she says. “It made me incredibly hungry for Zurich, and I told myself, as long as I didn’t let it affect me to the point where I got so nervous that I couldn’t think about it, then it was good motivation, if that makes sense?”

Rain lashed down onto the course that morning. The conditions suited Ferguson, a gritty cyclocross rider with a Yorkshire upbringing and a bellyful of rice. Into the finale, she was followed by two riders, who forced her to lead the sprint from the front. “I just remember crossing the finish line and putting my arms up in the air,” she says.

Before the teenager could reach her parents beyond the gantry, she was already in tears. “I think that memory will stay with me forever,” she says. “It’s special to win a World Champs, but to win one and then see my mum and dad, who have been there with me from the start of my cycling career...” the emotion is evident in her voice. “I’m incredibly grateful to them.”

Ferguson was six years old when her parents bought her her first road bike. The gift didn’t come easily. “I think they made me do 25 bike rides on some not-very-good bike I had before, and then write a book, like a 10-page book,” she says. “That was my first and last book.”

Her author days behind her, Ferguson next turned to slalom skiing. She trained on dry slopes near her home in Yorkshire, and on the snow on Alpe d’Huez, where her family had a chalet, eventually competing at the Junior European Championships at the age of 12. 

Deep down, though, a passion for cycling was already brewing. Spurred on by her parents, she had pedalled up most of the Alpe’s 21 hairpins when she was just eight years old. Now, as she prepares to turn professional next season, it’s her turn to lead the encouragement. “My dad’s just bought an e-bike so he can come out and train with me,” she smiles.

When junior riders sign for a professional team, it’s common for them to race as a stagiaire, or intern, ahead of the season starting. Winning in those first trial events is unprecedented, but when Ferguson made her Movistar debut in September, and finished second, she looked destined to defy the odds. Almost a fortnight later, that breakthrough came at the AG Tour de la Semois. “I was never the plan. It sort of just happened,” she says with a shrug.

The teenager was dropped four times on stage one of the Belgian race. “Somehow I was still there at the end,” she says, “so they did a lead-out for me”. It was a similar story 11 days on, when, the youngest rider on the 143-strong start list, she won Binche Chimay Binche. There, the victory felt even more impressive, prevailing in a cobbled sprint ahead of dsm-firmenich PostNL’s Charlotte Kool, who won two stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in the summer.

“I’m still questioning how I managed to be the first over the line,” Ferguson says, and begins making excuses for her opponents. “Charlotte had a bit of an issue in the race. She almost crashed and unclipped her foot in the sprint.” 

The victory made it two wins from four in her first pro race days, a feat that left her standing with her hands on her head by the finish line. “This is totally not what I expected,” she said at the time. “I’m here just to learn, I’m still a junior.”

Ferguson still echoes that feeling today, as she prepares to move to Girona at the start of her first full season as a pro. The biggest race on her calendar next year is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, she reveals, with the team clear to give her time to develop. “I don’t want to rush anything,” the teenager says, an adamant timbre to her voice.

“After the road worlds, I was watching the junior men’s race, and I was stood with a woman from America, the first winner of the Olympics road race.” What was Connie Carpenter's advice to her? “The first thing she said to me was to not rush it, to take it really slow, and that definitely has stuck with me, and I think it will.

“I think it’s really important to remember that I’m only 18. I’ve won a professional race, even if it was a smaller one, but I think as a priority, I want to have success as an elite, not just when I’m a junior. I want to take it slow and do everything right in order to make that happen.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 5th December 2024. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

In the end, the women's junior road race was almost a repeat of Tuesday's women's junior time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

A competitive race, won convincingly by teenage phenomenon GB's Cat Ferguson, with Slovakia's Viktória Chladoňová. Ferguson jumped straight into the arms of her parents, Tim and Sara, and then got her hands on a second rainbow jersey of this Worlds, her fourth of the year across track and road. It seems easy for the 18-year-old.

The overwhelming emotion on Thursday, however, was one of "relief", the rider from Yorkshire explained afterwards. After a tough race in the pouring rain of Zürich, where Ferguson came to the line in a three-person group after 73.5km of racing, all eyes were on the woman in the British kit.

After making the decisive move along with Chladoňová and Spain's Paula Ortiz on the final major climb of the race, the Witikon, Ferguson was the watched rider. She was forced to lead the trio under the flamme rouge, knowing that too much playing around could see them  caught, despite their lead being over a minute-and-a-half with 5km to go.

She didn't need to worry. After Ortiz opened up the sprint, Ferguson sprinted herself, and there was daylight between her and her rivals come the finish line. There was also time to sit up and celebrate, a celebration which consisted of pointing to the air before roaring with delight. Ortiz finished second behind, millimetres ahead of Chladoňová.

Pointing to the sky was a poignant tribute to her mum, who died when Ferguson was two, but the roar that followed was one of pent up frustration.

"I would say I was relieved," Ferguson observed of her emotions at the finish. "I worked so hard for this race in particular all year, and I knew going into the race that I would not be happy with anything but gold. Crossing the finish line there was pure relief that I had done it, and I didn't have to feel the emotions I had last year.

"I knew that they would probably look to me in the sprint, and I didn't want to get caught, there were riders quickly closing on us. I took the front and I was confident that as long as I didn't go too early that I could hold them off."

It was a nail-biting watch for her parents, just beyond the finish line.

"It's surreal, there's almost relief as much as joy, but it has been a surreal week," Tim Ferguson said. "She came so close last year, and today was so special. She really wanted today."

"All she has wanted all this season was to win this race," Sara Ferguson added. "It was nervous to watch, and I know she was very nervous coming into it, because anything can go wrong. "

It was the last race for Cat Ferguson as a junior; she has already signed a contract for Movistar, won a race for them in fact, so it is unlikely we will ever see the rainbow jersey in a race.

"It's a bit sad, I heard Lotte Kopecky yesterday saying that the junior years were the best years of her life and that you should enjoy them," she said. "I agree, there's less pressure, it's all about learning, and I'm incredibly grateful for the two years.

"I'm thankful to my parents, to British Cycling, Movistar, and Shibden Hopetech Apex. It's been so much fun, I'm ready for a new chapter now, but I'm closing the junior years out with a great race."

The 18-year-old is already moving on, with a race for her new senior team coming in a few days time, but there is time to realise the achievement of this week. It's only the sixth time that the same junior woman has won the time trial and the road race. Interestingly enough, she's the third Brit after Nicole Cooke and Zoe Bäckstedt, two riders to emulate.

"I have three more races to do with Movistar, the off-season is not for a while yet, but tonight I'll celebrate," Ferguson said.

She has a lot to celebrate too; this is her 12th win of 2024, and she hasn't finished lower than second at a junior race. Ferguson seems like Midas at this level, with everything turning to gold.

"This year has been super-consistent, which was why Worlds was a little bit scary for me because I knew that I was the big favourite, and it was my race to lose almost," she explained. It wasn't her race to lose though, it was her race to win.

Teenage British sensation Cat Ferguson dominated the women's junior time trial at the UCI Road World Championships on Tuesday morning to take her first rainbow jersey on the road.

The 18-year-old was fastest at the first time check and extended her lead at the finish to 34 seconds over second-placed Viktória Chladoňová of Slovakia, with GB's Imogen Wolff in third, a further two seconds back. The pair took home GB's first medals of the Road Worlds, although Dame Sarah Storey has already secured a rainbow jersey in Zürich.

Ferguson powered round the 18.8km course in 23:49.72, meaning she averaged 47.3km/h. After finishing 10th in the TT and second in the road race in 2023 in Glasgow, she will now be hoping to double up her gold medals this week, with the road race coming on Thursday.

"It’s incredible," she said on TV post-race. "The disappointment I’ve had before makes this jersey even more special. To put the ride in, the process that went into this… it’s incredible. I’ve got so many people to thank. I don’t have the words right now but I’m incredibly grateful to them all.

"It was helpful to have my coach in my ear guiding me through the the whole race, that’s so nice. Having someone there to support you, back you. I had my ride, stuck to my plan. It was windier than I thought it would be, so I just kept my head down."

Asked if she saved anything for the second half, Ferguson replied: "I stuck to set watts and tried to do it throughout, so going out was as hard as coming back."

She was greeted on the finish line by her parents: "My mum and dad has been through it all, to have them here with me is so special."

While this is Ferguson's first rainbow jersey on the road, it is her third this year, after she won two World Championships titles on the track this year, in the omnium and the team pursuit at the Junior Track Worlds.

The rider from Yorkshire joined Movistar this year, and finished second at her first ever race for the team, La Choralis Fourmies Féminine, earlier this month.

Wolff, who finished third on Tuesday, has signed for Visma-Lease a Bike, and is also a multiple junior world champion on the track.

There are two types of headlines about British cycling at the moment, both of which you will have seen on our website over the past couple of years. There is, bluntly, good news and bad news. Let’s start with the good.

On Sunday, in her first ever professional race, Cat Ferguson finished second at La Choralis Fourmies. The 18-year-old signed for Movistar this year, and is one to watch in every race she takes part in. She’ll be joined by her compatriot Carys Lloyd at the Spanish squad next season, after both signed three-year deals; meanwhile, their fellow junior track world champion Imogen Wolff is heading to Visma-Lease a Bike.

Just a couple of weeks previously, we had the first ever British winner of the men’s Tour de l’Avenir in Joe Blackmore. The 21-year-old is a star of now, as well as the future, and his rate of GC wins this year has only pointed to bigger things to come; how long before we pin our Tour de France hopes on the Londoner? He has already signed with Israel-Premier Tech’s senior team from its development squad, despite not completing a year there. The IPT devo team are taking on board Fin Tarling, the younger brother of TT sensation Josh Tarling, who is still only 20. Meanwhile, Matt Brennan will be in Visma’s elite team next year, while Bob Donaldson has joined Jayco AlUla.

What’s more, the Tour of Britain Men has just had its first British victor since 2016 in Stevie Williams, the first British man to win La Flèche Wallonne, which also happened this year. Tom Pidcock, hardly old at 25, became the second man to defend his Olympic mountain bike title last month.

However, while these are the good headlines, there are the bad headlines too.

Just since the Tour de France, we have had ‘British women's team Lifeplus-Wahoo to close at end of year’, ‘20mph restrictions force key British race to make late route change’, ‘Road racing in Wales in 'unsustainable' situation, governing body says’, ‘Trinity Racing facing possible closure’ and today, ‘Important British race disappears from domestic calendar, as scene continues to suffer’.

This year, there were a record number of women’s Continental teams in the UK - six - but the biggest one, Lifeplus, is about to be no more, and another, Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting came perilously close to closing this year too. If Trinity Racing were to close down, there would be just one men’s Continental team left - Saint Piran - and they are already the only senior squad anyway. There is not a defined pathway for riders to take from the bottom to the top, much of the time.

There are fewer races on which people can make their mark, too. Next year there will be just the men’s and women’s Tours of Britain and the men’s CiCLE classic in terms of UCI-ranked races, with the women’s RideLondon Classique skipping a year at least. Race organisers at all levels speak of the difficulty organising races, with the events low on cash-strapped councils’ priority lists, and a real lack of accredited race marshals, and race organisers simply not wanting to keep up the incredibly hard work forever. Add in the impact that the cost-of-living crisis has had on race entries, compounded by the pandemic, and the difficulty in attracting new people to road racing, then it seems bleak. Brexit didn’t help, either.

Just this week, I heard from a CX race organiser suggesting that the writing was on the wall if there wasn’t some way of getting more people involved. The crisis - and that isn’t hyperbolic - is affecting all kinds of cycling, despite the lockdown boom and the rise of gravel.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The good news is there. It was only a decade ago that we were basking in the 2012 boom for cycling in this country. Initiatives like Monument Cycling and British Cycling’s elite racing task force are trying to help, but there is a long way to go. I do not have the answers, but the dichotomy between the success of Britain’s youngsters and the state of its domestic scene is stark right now.

Sometimes we get told off, as Cycling Weekly, for being too negative. There are still so many good things to highlight and trumpet, but the truth is, there are many fault lines underneath the domestic scene that need looking at. Let’s hope that this golden generation is not the last, and get involved in racing if you can. It needs you!

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

If you have anything to add to this story in particular, please get in touch!

Promising 18-year-old Cat Ferguson will make her professional debut this Sunday at the one-day event La Choralis Fourmies.

The Brit will compete in the French race for Movistar, the team she joined as a stagiaire in August. Ferguson will ride for the Spanish WorldTour team full-time from 2024, having signed a three-year contract last September.

At 128.8km, La Choralis Fourmies will be the longest race of the teenager's young career. She will line up in France alongside teammates Lucía Ruiz, Laura Ruiz, Jelena Erić, Sheyla Gutiérrez, and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage winner Emma Norsgaard.

When Ferguson signed with Movistar last year, she described the move as a "dream come true".

"From our first meeting it felt like such a welcoming and family environment, with a great focus on developing my attributes at WorldTour level," she said.

"I look forward to learning from the best and most experienced riders in the world, and couldn't think of a better team to help me make the step up to elite cycling."

This season, Ferguson has ruled over the junior ranks, finishing on the podium in every race she started. She counts 10 wins among her road results, including the overall victories at three Nations Cup events and the British junior road race title.

Last month, the 18-year-old claimed her first rainbow jerseys at the Junior Track World Championships. She won the team pursuit with a world-record ride alongside Imogen Wolff, Erin Boothman and Carys Lloyd, who has also signed a three-year deal with Movistar. Ferguson then sealed the omnium title the following day.

The Brit's breakthrough came in 2023, when she won her first race as a junior, the Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda, aged just 16, two years younger than other riders on the start list.

She finished runner-up in the junior road race at the World Championships last August, cementing her status as one of the most promising riders in the circuit. "If you told me at the start of the season I’d come second here, I'd be so happy," she said at the time.

No further details have been released about the rest of Ferguson's race calendar with Movistar this season.

La Choralis Fourmies, a UCI 1.1 ranked event, is held in the city of Fourmies in the northeast of France. Now two-time British national champion Pfeiffer Georgi took her first professional victory at the race in 2021.

Cat Ferguson (Hope Tech Factory Racing) stormed to a sensational victory in the junior women category at the British National Cyclo-Cross Championships over the weekend. 

The rising star, who will join Movistar on the WorldTour next August, took the win three minutes and 47 seconds ahead of silver medallist Alice Colling (Shibden CC) as Esther Wong (Shibden CC) took bronze. 

Ferguson made a rapid start, accelerating away from her competitors and eventually building up a gap of a minute by the time she entered the second lap of the course in Falkirk's Callender Park. 

Once she had a small advantage, Ferguson showed no sign of relenting and further increased her lead to an unassailable margin to ensure she took the honours. 

Speaking after the race, the 17-year-old said: “To come away with a title today is really special. It’s quite a challenging course physically and technically, so I wanted to just lead from the start and to see what gap I could get and just extend it throughout the race. 

“In that final lap, I just wanted to enjoy it and take in the crowd. There were so many people out there supporting me today and I’m just really grateful.”

Meanwhile Anna Kay (Cyclocross Reds) put in a similar display of dominance in the elite female race to claim her first ever elite national title. 

Similarly to Ferguson, Kay was off the front of the pack immediately and quickly established a substantial gap over a chase group containing Imogen Wolff (Trinity Racing), Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceuninck), Ella Maclean-Howell (Hope Factory Racing) and Grace Inglis (Muckle CC). 

Kay eventually finished 50 seconds ahead of Maclean-Howell, who took second place and the silver medal, with Inglis taking bronze. 

Post-race Kay explained that she trusted her form so decided to attack from the gun. 

“I still don't believe it,” she said. “It's my first elite title in any discipline, so I'm really happy. I knew it was going to be fast and I just felt good on the first lap, so I thought, ‘Yeah, why not just go?’ It's so good for spectators and it's good for us as riders because we get support everywhere.” 

Mason doubles up on home soil

Elsewhere Cameron Mason successfully defended his elite national title that he won in Milnthorpe last year. 

Racing just ten kilometres from his hometown, Mason had to close down Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing) as well as Toby Barnes (Ribble-Verge Sport) and Corran Carrick-Anderson (T-Mo Racing) who built up an early advantage. 

On the second lap, Mein pushed on as a resurgent Mason lifted the tempo to pass other riders with ease and close in on the leader. 

Mason eventually made his move, passing Mein after a sweeping, technical section before pushing on in pole position. Mein battled behind the Scotsman, who pulled away and eventually crossed the finish line to win by one minute and 15 seconds. 

Lewis Askey (Groupama FDJ) took bronze after a valiant chase behind the two leaders. 

Celebrating a dramatic victory on home soil, Mason said: “What a crazy day! I really felt the pressure today and just wanted to do what I knew I could do. 

“I know how to ride this course in order to get the most out of myself. My plan was to kind of let the race unfold and not go too deep, too early. I’ve raced on this course for the last 10 years or so, but I am just happy to execute the plan and get it done. 

“That's exactly why I ride a bike – the feeling of winning is just so awesome.” 

Cat Ferguson was crowned Cycling Weekly's Rising Star for 2023. This exclusive interview originally appeared in the magazine on 7 December. Subscribe now and never miss an issue in 2024. 

To interview Cat Ferguson, you have to wait until 4pm, once she has returned home from her day at school. 

The 17-year-old is in her final year of A-Levels, studying business, sports science and psychology, just like any other student might. Except Ferguson is not like other students her age. Next year, she will finish her exams and join Spanish squad Movistar, one of the top-performing women’s WorldTour teams, becoming one of the youngest riders ever to compete at cycling’s highest level.

“I got a little card today from our head of year saying well done,” she tells Cycling Weekly. But among the other pupils, Ferguson likes to keep her life as a cyclist on the down-low. “They like to talk about it, but I don’t like to talk about it with them at school,” she says. 

The attention, however, is unavoidable when you collect results like Ferguson. Her 2023 tally is as follows: victory at Capernwray in her first-ever senior road race, victory on her Nations Cup debut at the Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda, victory at the junior Tour of Flanders and victory in the British National Championships junior time trial. 

In fact, Ferguson was so consistent this season that she did not finish outside the top 10 in a race until mid-September. All this in her first year as a junior. 

“I completely didn’t expect any of this,” she says, a genuine humility in her voice. “I didn’t expect to be the rising star, which shows that I didn’t expect any of the results. 

“Coming into the year, I was so pleased with where I was. I didn’t expect to win the first Nations Cups and things like that. Then, progressing, I realised where I was and what I could achieve.”

In the junior road race at August’s World Championships, a spirited last-gasp sprint landed Ferguson a silver medal from the group behind the breakaway French winner. After the race, the Brit fell strewn over her handlebars, propped up from falling only by the metal barriers at the side of the road. 

“People were like, ‘Wow, you left that very late.’ But there was no question really in my head. I was going to win for second,” she says. “To me it felt like I was going to win it comfortably.” 

As her road season now draws to a close, Ferguson, who currently rides for her father’s junior team Shibden Hope Tech Apex, has shifted her sights to cyclocross, before she joins Movistar for a winter training camp, and then fully as a trainee in August.

In another life, though, she might have ended up as a slalom skier. “My family are very outdoorsy,” the 17-year-old explains. “We used to go skiing quite a lot when I was little, maybe once or twice a year, to the Alps.

“My parents actually bought a chalet out in Alpe d’Huez that they use as a business, and so we went there loads and I did lots of training on real snow and dry ski slopes until I was about 12. I was quite competitive. I competed at the European Championships and I think I came third.” 

The bug for cycling had already set in, however. Raised in North Yorkshire - Lizzie Deignan country - Ferguson remembers riding mountain bikes with her parents as a child. In a video interview earlier this year, she revealed she was just eight years old when she scaled Alpe d’Huez for the first time. “From hairpin 14!” she is now quick to clarify.

“I think it wasn’t all of it. It was only half, which my parents told me after I said that,” the teenager adds with a laugh. 

Now, Ferguson is eight months away from turning pro. WorldTour teams, it turns out, have been after her signature since March, with Movistar among a gaggle to contact her throughout the season. 

“I spoke to a couple of teams, maybe about three or four,” she explains. “Then Movistar approached me after Flanders, and I just clicked with them best, to be honest.

“I had lots of Zoom calls with the DS, Seb [Unzué], and got on with him really well. The team’s values and what they offered me was amazing. They’re going to support me to do ’cross and everything, so it was a very clear decision for me.” 

How’s her Spanish? “Very bad,” she laughs. “I did French all the way through school, so it probably expands to hola and gracias. I’m going to try and learn some Spanish out of respect for the staff.” 

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 11 May 2023. Since publication, both Cat Ferguson and Izzy Sharp have signed WorldTour contracts, and will join Movistar and Lidl-Trek respectively in 2024. 

Cat Ferguson was just 16 years old when she made her Nations Cup debut at the Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda in March. In her first year of A-Levels, she had just joined GB’s junior academy and was gearing up for her first road race with the squad. She was nervous, of course she was nervous, but there was no real pressure to perform. The race was twice as long as she was used to, and more still, some of the riders on the start list were two years older than her. 

“I was hoping to maybe be in the front group, and maybe get a top 10,” she tells Cycling Weekly. So you can imagine her surprise when she went and won the thing. 

“It was quite a shock,” Ferguson says. With 40km to go, she tore clear from the pack, together with a French rider, and won the two-up sprint to the finish. She covered her mouth in disbelief as she crossed the line.  

First-year academy riders winning on their debut is almost unheard of, but the latest crop of GB junior women is special. For the squad’s coach, Emma Trott, older sister of five-time Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny, Ferguson’s feat is the reserve of “super-talents”, of which there are a handful in the eight-rider cohort. A glance at the Binda results shows that, of the six girls the national federation fielded, four of them finished in the top 11. What’s even more impressive is that they’d never ridden together before. 

Now, there’s a confidence in the squad that they can win every race they start. The riders all believe it. Trott believes it, too. “I think everyone thinks I’m mad, actually,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “But I somehow plant seeds that miraculously grow and then people buy into my madness. I do genuinely believe that we could dominate this year, which sounds cocky, but there’s something about it that I do think it could happen.”

For the junior academy coach, her current cohort is the most well-balanced she has ever managed. “I was excited in October when I selected them,” she says. “First camp, I was buzzing, absolutely buzzing, because I could just see the cohesion. Everything about it was just wow, I was like, ‘This is really awesome.’ And then it got better and better and better.” 

At the training camp in Mallorca, Spain, Trott was taken aback by the team’s work ethic. “They were just unbelievable in terms of their willingness to train hard,” she says. On one occasion, the group insisted on riding further than planned, determined to reach the 100-mile mark and build up their endurance for the longer races they’d face at junior level. 

Why, then, if these teenagers are so talented, haven’t we heard about them before? 

For Trott, it has something to do with the 2022 junior world champion, Zoe Bäckstedt. Last year, Bäckstedt’s results overshadowed her teammates. As she cruised through the junior ranks, she picked up four rainbow jerseys, ruled over the Nations Cup stage races and secured herself a WorldTour contract.

“I think, in essence, Zoe was a godsend, because I think the girls were almost protected in a certain way,” says Trott. “What it has meant is that other riders have been able to develop out of the spotlight, which I think sometimes is a good thing. Now, with her [Bäckstedt] removed from the junior category, it’s their opportunity to step-up.” 

One of those reaching new heights is second-year rider Izzy Sharp. A week after Binda, the then 17-year-old dashed to victory at Gent Wevelgem Juniors, following in the footsteps of WorldTour pros Pfeiffer Georgi and Elynor Bäckstedt. She continued her form into March’s EPZ Omloop van Borsele, winning the three-stage race she finished second in last year to Bäckstedt. 

Already a 10-time national champion, Sharp’s progress in cycling has been hugely promising. “I did a lot of sports when I was younger,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “I did triathlon for a year or two, which I think a lot of cyclists seem to do, and then ended up getting into cycling.” 

At youth level, Sharp took quickly to cyclo-cross and track racing, but really excelled in time trialling, collecting both course and national records. Merging disciplines, she says, gives her the “perfect combination” to succeed. “Track gives you such a tactical and technical ability on the bike, and obviously a speed aspect of it. Time trials, just general raw power, and that can just pass on to a lot of things.” 

It’s this multi-disciplinary view that’s helping accelerate the development of the junior academy riders. Sharp isn’t the only one crossing over. In fact, all of them compete in track events, which is a pre-requisite for getting on the programme. Some enjoy cyclo-cross, too, such as Imogen Wolff, the current junior national champion, and Binda winner Ferguson, who earned a silver medal in the team relay at this year’s World Championships. 

“It takes the boring side of winter training away,” Ferguson says. “For me, I like racing, I enjoy racing, so to be able to race all throughout the winer, instead of just having to train and wait for the first road race is definitely something that keeps me motivated.” 

The teenager grew up in North Yorkshire mountain biking on local trails with her parents. “I really didn’t like it,” she laughs. “I used to just get sprayed with mud. Then I started doing competitive skiing, slalom skiing, and alongside that I was using cycling at my local club for training.” When she realised she had a knack for it, she began dedicating herself more to riding her bike.

In tandem with her junior academy racing, Ferguson competes for a trade team, Shibden Hope Tech Apex, and stunned a stacked domestic field when she won her first road race at Capernwray in Lancaster. The team was set up this season by her father, Tim, a long-time cycling coach. 

“I started the team for many, many reasons,” he tells Cycling Weekly, though he’s quick to stress that not one of them were for his daughter. “I’m putting British junior girls at the forefront, which is a big passion,” he adds. 

His team counts seven girls, three of which are GB junior academy riders, with a further two involved more loosely with the national squad.

Having a trade team is a huge advantage for the GB prospects. If, for any reason, they aren’t selected for an event with the national federation, they can still rely on their teams for race entries. The parents band together to organise trips overseas, and with help from sponsors, can afford to give their daughters experience racing internationally. At Gent-Wevelgem Juniors, for example, there were 23 Brits, split across four teams. 

One of those was Shibden, a team for which manager Tim has a simple goal. “As much as it’s my team and I’m running it, I want to lose [the riders], if that makes sense? The aim is that they get noticed by whoever, and it’s already happening. We’ve got quite a few WorldTour teams who are interested in some of them.

“They aren’t just good, they’re bloody brilliant.” 

The WorldTour, at least for now, is perhaps a step too far. For national coach Trott, the most important thing is that her cohort of teenagers continues to develop, and has fun doing it. “We have this thing that it’s the big kid leading the little kids,” she says, “and maybe that’s just it. I think it’s a hard job whether you’re on the bike or off the bike, so actually having some fun and embracing that actually goes a hell of a long way. 

“As long as they’re happy, they’ll go out there and perform, whether that be in training or in a race.” 

And so, with smiles on their faces, the group’s path of destruction continues. They’ve already won the opening two Nations Cup events, but the line isn’t drawn there. They’re after the team pursuit title at the European Track Championships, Trott outlines, and with a home World Championships this August in Glasgow, they fancy a rainbow jersey, too. “I’d like to win everything this year, to be perfectly honest,” the coach says. There’s a real feeling that her group just might. 

GB's junior women won two out of the five Nations Cup events in 2023, and took bronze in the team pursuit at the European Track Championships. Ferguson went on to win the junior Tour of Flanders and finish second in the World Championships road race. Sharp, too, earned a silver medal at Worlds, a runner-up in the individual time trial. 

It was a day of mixed emotions for the home team at the Glasgow World Championships in both the men’s and women’s junior road races on Saturday.

The home team started the day as outright favourites for the junior women’s title. However, thanks to a blistering long range attack from France’s Julie Bego they were forced to settle for second place and a silver medal for Cat Ferguson. 

Led by Emma Trott - sister of multiple Olympic champion Laura Kenny - the British team were aiming to secure the rainbow jersey for Ferguson who came into the race as the group’s lead rider.

Ferguson has rapidly developed a name for herself as a rising star in women’s cycling and has previously won the junior Tour of Flanders, Trofeo Alfredo Binda and a stage in the recent Bizkaikoloreak Nations Cup stage race to further underline her credentials.

Speaking to the media after the race, Ferguson explained that the initial frustration at missing out on the rainbow bands had worn off and that she was proud of the team’s achievement.

"If you told me at the start of the season I'd come second here I'd be so happy,” she said. “So far my season's gone really well - I took a couple of wins in the Nations Cups. GB came here looking for the gold medal and the jersey, whether it was me winning or one of my teammates. So it's a little bit frustrating with the silver but it's not the end of the world.

“I definitely felt a bit of pressure as I've won two Nations Cups on quite a similar course to this as well, so I felt like I was the favourite coming in. But equally, pressure gives you adrenaline, it helps you. So as a first year I felt less pressure because I knew I had a whole other year."

Bego launched what would be the race winning move 20 kilometres from the line on one of the smaller climbs on the course. It had been widely anticipated that the steep Montrose street would prove to be decisive although Bego caught the British team unawares on the smaller Eldon street ramp.

Ferguson had enough left to win the sprint for second but explained that she had felt some frustration at the lack of cohesion in the chasing group behind the Frenchwoman.

"When Julie went I was quite poorly positioned, I was marking the Italian girl and my teammate was on Julie," Ferguson explained. "Unfortunately she couldn't hold onto Julie and that's when she got away.”

"There was a group of maybe ten left and we tried to encourage them to chase,” she added. “We'd been told prior by coach Emma [Trott] that if we got into this scenario I should do less because I have quite a good sprint. So it was down to Awen Roberts and Imogen Wolff to chase.

"I did come through and tried to encourage the other nations with numbers but unfortunately, GB was the only team trying to chase and unfortunately, it didn't work."

As the race progressed, light rain started to fall causing the already fast and technical cause to become even more slick. Several riders succumbed to crashes or mechanical incidents and Ferguson explained that she believed the weather had given Bego an advantage once she got up the road.

"The rain helped Julie - it made it harder to see her and we didn't know how big the gap was," Ferguson said as she explained that the British team had been forced to do the majority of the work in the second group to reel her back in. “Belgium had two and there were a couple other of the favourites in there. So we spoke to them trying to encourage them to work but they just wouldn't so it was very difficult to gain on Bego." 

Carnage from the start

Meanwhile Denmark’s Albert Philipsen took the honours in the men’s race after launching a stinging move from a seven man breakaway that had originally included Britain’s Matthew Brennan.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly after the race, Brennan explained that the relentless nature of the Glasgow course meant that he blew up in the closing stages and had nothing left to give.

“It was just carnage from the start,” Brennan said. “I knew you had to sort of be at the front end of it and I was looking down at my power metre and for the first 45 minutes I was doing 350 watts average but I couldn't hold that.

“I knew something would snap eventually and once I got up the road that was pretty tough. I just kept working but unfortunately I just ran out our legs really and cramped up as well.”

Brennan fought valiantly to stay with the pace of the leaders but the punchy climbs eventually took their toll. The British rider explained that as the climbs began to bite, he was roared on by support from the roadside.

“I really enjoyed the crowds,” Brennan said. “I was absolutely swinging at the end and zigzagging up some of the climbs but the crowds really helped me get up there.”

Brennan explained that the nature of the course meant that positioning was of vital importance going into the fast and sweeping bends.

“It's a rock hard circuit and there's nowhere to hide,” he said. “You have to really make sure you're in the right places. There's no point sitting in the bunch because it's hard going up the road, you might as well just do what you can and get yourself up the road. But yeah, it was a pretty brutal circuit and I think it was one of the toughest races I've ever done this year.”