Teenage British sensation Cat Ferguson dominated the women’s junior time trial at the 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.
