SKIPTON’S Cat Ferguson spearheaded Team GB to a silver medal finish in a tense showdown with France at the UCI Road World Championships last weekend.

The home country's team were classed as 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 GB racing for silver.

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.

"When Julie went, I was quite poorly positioned, I was marking the Italian girl and my teammate was on Julie," Ferguson explained to the Cycling News website after the event.

"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."