The UCI Road World Championships started on Saturday with the home country's team one of the main favourites for the Junior Women's road race in Glasgow, but a perfectly timed attack from France's Julie Bego had the team racing for silver.
Cat Ferguson, winner of the junior Tour of Flanders, Trofeo Alfredo Binda and a stage in the recent Bizkaikoloreak Nations Cup stage race claimed the medal from a small group behind the lone leader but was left feeling slightly frustrated with the lack of cohesion in the chasing group.
Bego attacked with around 20km to go, not on the daunting Montrose Street climb but a smaller Eldon Street ascent, timing it when the British team had let their guard down.
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"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. 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."
The race was one of attrition, with crashes and the punishing pace set by Great Britain in the early laps whittling down the field from 98 starters to just 40 in the leading group before the winning move went clear.
Britain's Carys Lloyd was one of the only riders to stay away for a significant time, going clear with 40km to go and staying away for a few kilometres to force other teams to expend energy.
"It was one of our tactics, making the race extremely hard," Lloyd said. "When you have Cat in your back pocket, she's a great sprinter. So because I'm naturally good at hills, it was the aim to make the race really hard from the start. I was feeling great at the start and then the legs just started to die at the end."
Bego only had a dozen seconds in the closing kilometres but the huge number of turns on the course and a light rain that made the corners slick gave the French rider a distinct advantage.
"The rain helped Julie - it made it harder to see her and we didn't know how big the gap was," Ferguson said, adding that it seemed that her team were doing most of the work to bring her back.
"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."
Despite it not working out in her first World Championships, Ferguson is looking on the bright side as she'll have another chance in 2024.
"If you told me at the start of the season I'd come second here I'd be so happy. So far my season's gone really well - I took a couple of wins in the Nations Cups. GB came for the gold, whether it was me winning or one of my teammates. So it's a little frustrating with the silver.
"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 a first year there I felt there was no pressure because I knew I had a whole 'nother year."
