Cat Ferguson breaks new ground to take Tour of Britain lead after crash-packed stage
The 19-year-old Cat Ferguson prevailed in foul conditions at the finish to claim victory on a crash-packed stage three of the Women's Tour of Britain and with it the general classification lead. It was her first UCI Women's World Tour stage victory.
Ferguson (Movistar) from Skipton, North Yorkshire, surged clear across the cobbles in Kelso to lead home a British one-two in front of Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL). New Zealand's Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) finished third, with the Dutch rider Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) in fourth.
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Stage three result
1 Cat Ferguson (GB/Movistar) 3h 42m 37s
2 Josie Nelson (GB/Picnic-PostNL) same time
3 Ally Wollaston (NZ/FDJ-Suez) st
4 Karlijn Swinkels (Neth/UAE-Team ADQ) st
5 Eleonora Gasparrini (Ita/UAE-Team ADQ) +3s
6 Millie Couzens (GB National Team) +38s
7 Quinty Ton (Neth/Liv-Alula-Jayco) same time
8 Imogen Wolff (GB/Visma Lease A Bike) st
9 Charlotte Kool (Neth/Picnic-PostNL) st
10 Marta Lach (Pol/SD Worx-Protime) st
General classification
1 Cat Ferguson (GB/Movistar) 8h 39m 42s
2 Ally Wollaston (NZ/FDJ-Suez) +3s
3 Karlijn Swinkels (Neth/UAE-Team ADQ) +12s
4 Riejanne Markus (Neth/Lidl-Trek) +40s
5 Megan Jastrab (US/Picnic-PostNL) +52s
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6 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den/Canyon-SRAM) +52s
7 Quinty Ton (Neth/Liv-Alula-Jayco) +56s
8 Anna Henderson (GB/Lidl-Trek) +56s
9 Millie Couzens (GB National Team) +59s
10 Amber Kraak (Neth/FDJ-Suez) + 1m 5s
It propelled Ferguson past the leader Kristen Faulkner – who finished more than three minutes down – and into the overall lead with Sunday's final stage to come. Wollaston trails by three seconds in the provisional general classification, with Swinkels a further nine seconds back, and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) fourth, 40 seconds behind Ferguson.
The stage was marred by a number of crashes with several riders forced to abandon, among them previous race leader Kim Le Court.
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'This was one of the races I was most excited to do this season. I really wanted to come here in good form and show Britain how good I can be and I think I proved that,' said Ferguson. 'It's really emotional, even talking about it now.
'We worked well together as a group and I knew that if I positioned myself well into that final corner I could probably win the sprint. It was useful we'd done it before, in the intermediate sprint. I knew it was better to be second wheel and then launch first because you lose some momentum on the cobbles and it's hard to build it back up.'
On the final stage Ferguson said: 'I'm a little bit nervous. It's going to be a rough night's sleep, I really want to hold on to this jersey. We'll see how it goes around the streets of Glasgow. I've raced there before and we've got a strong and motivated team. We'll do our best to defend it.'
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