James Shaw was Great Britain's best placed rider at the end of a tough day on the bike at the world championships junior men's road race.
The 18 year-old was 16th in the final gallop to the line in Ponferrada after slipping back and losing position through the final corner with 600m to go.
However the junior Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner was pleased with his final race in the junior ranks before he heads to Lotto-Belisol U23 next season.
"This is my last race as a junior; I'd have liked to have done a little bit better but what happened happened," he said.
"Looking at the race, a lot of riders saw the U23 road race and tried to play it very similar. But when you’ve got 90 riders trying to do the same as one guy yesterday, it was hard all day and it just got harder."
Shaw was the sole British rider left at the front of the race on the final of the seven laps of the course; Matt Gibson, who finished tenth in the time trial, suffered a mechanical when his arm warmers slipped from his pocked and tore off his rear derailleur, leaving him to finish the race on neutral service spare bike.
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"I went over the top of the final climb about seventh or eighth," he said. "I set myself up well for the sprint until the final corner really, where I drifted out wide to take the racing line.
"Obviously if you open a door then people are going to go through it aren’t they. A good number of riders came through which meant I pretty much had to start my sprint with 500m to go, and I was just holding on to wheels really.
"You do begin to think that the door may open and the luck may fall your way, but you’ve got to make that luck, its not just going to come to you free of charge."
Richard Abraham is an award-winning writer, based in New Zealand. He has reported from major sporting events including the Tour de France and Olympic Games, and is also a part-time travel guide who has delivered luxury cycle tours and events across Europe. In 2019 he was awarded Writer of the Year at the PPA Awards.
