'It's something I would have done eventually in my career' – Cat Ferguson puts cyclo-cross and track on hold to focus on road racing

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.