Great Britain's Cat Ferguson has taken an emphatic triumph in the World Championships Junior Women's Individual Time Trial, winning a massive 34-second margin over Viktória Chladoňová (Slovakia) to average a blistering 47.34kph.
Imogen Wolff underlined British domination of the flat, straightforward 18.8-kilometre course running alongside the shores of Lake Zurich by clinching the bronze medal, two seconds down on Chladoňová and 11 seconds up on fourth-placed Fee Knaven (Netherlands).
14 seconds fastest at the turn, Ferguson continued to maintain her effort well to claim her first junior title in a year where she has already won the British National Road Race and a string of other events.
The 18-year-old Briton is set to turn pro with Movistar next season, a team where she is already racing as a stagière.
Second last year in Glasgow in the road race and tenth in the 2023 time trial, Ferguson described her TT victory as "Incredible - the disappointment I've had before makes this jersey even more special."
"Just to put that ride in - the process that went into this, it's incredible, I've got so many people to thank and the words right now are I'm incredibly grateful to them all."
With 53 starters on a showery early morning, the first finisher home Eva Potočnik of Slovenia clocked an initial time to beat of 26:36, but Angelina Burenkova of Kazakhstan quickly set the bar much higher with a provisional best of 26:02.
Luxembourg's Junior National Champion Gwen Nothum then became the first rider to go under 26 minutes, slashing more than 30 seconds off Burenkova's time to come home in 25:23. Although Kazakhsan's Mariya Yelkina soon outstripped her by a second, both their times were eclipsed by the performance of Viktória Chladoňová who produced a stunning provisional best time of 24:24.
"I don't do TT training very often, so it was a big surprise for me," the Slovakian, recently a European TT medallist who also practices MTB and cyclo-cross, said afterwards. But her time proved to be more than enough to earn her a medal finish all the same.
Despite going the fastest by a sixth of a second at the turn (km 9.4), a disappointed Imogen Wolf (GB) subsequently narrowly missed out on the Slovakian's time, finishing two seconds behind after her power meter failed to work properly. Rider after rider then failed to impact on either time set by the Slovakian and Briton, even if several of the key favourites were yet to start.
Double Dutch National TT Champion Fee Knaven fired a warning shot across their bows with the second best time at the turn, but she faded in the second half - eventually settling for fourth. However, it was a very different story for Britain's Cat Ferguson, the last rider to start and widely viewed as a top contender. Already 14 seconds up on Chladoňová at the time split, Ferguson then more than doubled that advantage to continue her blistering final season as a Junior with a definitive winning margin of over 34 seconds -well clear of the rest of the field.
Later explaining her stunning TT performance, Ferguson said one key to success on a course with just 36 metres of elevation gain was that she had maintained her pacing strategy throughout.
"I had my ride, stuck to the plan, it was a bit windier than I thought, I was getting blown around a little bit, so I tried to keep my head down as much as possible," she said.
"I kept to a set of Watts and tried to do it throughout, going out was as hard as on the way back."
Ferguson also paid tribute to those who helped her claim her first Junior Worlds title, saying "It was helpful to have my coach in my ear, guiding me through and having someone there to support you and back you is so nice." Then when she reached the finish line with the gold medal a certainty, her parents were there to greet her as well. "They've been there throughout my career, so to have them here today was great," she added.
Ferguson is now set to start her first full pro season with Movistar in 2025, but with her TT triumph as one of her final Junior successes, her morale will surely be higher than ever as she embarks on the next stage of an already very promising career.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the 2024 UCI Road World Championships - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from the junior, under-23, and elite time trials and road races as it happens and more. Find out more.
