It was another successful day for Great Britain as Cat Ferguson took her second world title in the junior women’s road race, while Fin Graham made it three rainbow jerseys in a row in the men’s C3 road race.

Graham’s teammate Ben Watson made it a GB one-two, winning the C3 silver medal while Seb Grindley became the first ever Brit to take a medal in the junior men’s road race, coming away with silver.

Junior women’s road race

Cat Ferguson made it two for two, winning the junior women’s road race title with a fantastic sprint finish to round out her junior career.

At 40km to go, a breakaway group of six, including Ferguson formed, taking an early lead of 10 seconds. Five kiltometres later, the break had increased to 35 seconds and Ferguson attacked, trying to get off the front but was swiftly pulled back into the lead group.

A number of attacks were made on the descent, stringing out the front group and reducing it to five riders coming back together at the bottom. With 30km to go, Imogen Wolff attacked out of the peloton to try and bridge the gap to the front group, taking Eirini Stampori Papadimitriou (Greece) with her.

Unable to bridge over, Ferguson stayed the solo brit in the front group, with Wolff nine seconds back and the peloton a further eight seconds behind with 25km to go.

Moves continued to be made as the weather worsened, with the Brits taking advantage of the poor conditions, closing the gap to bring the groups back together with three Brits in the midst. 

With 22km to go, the group splintered on the climb to leave a lead three of Ferugson, Viktoria Chladonova (Slovakia) and Paula Taco Ostiz (Spain). The group worked hard together, with Ferguson taking a lot of work on the front, to keep the chase group at bay. With their lead only growing, it was a cat and mouse game in an attempt to grind each other down heading into the final stretch. 

With 5km, Ferguson was sat comfortably in second wheel waiting for one of the others to make a move, before the final 1.5km saw the trio slow right down and become cagey as the sprint finish began to appear in the distance.

With just metres to go, all three were swung across the road, taking space and waiting for someone to start the sprint. The Spaniard went, Ferguson reacted and, unmatched, sped between her rivals over the finish line to take her second world title of the competition in sensational style.

On her feelings on crossing the finish line in first place, Ferguson said: "I would say I was relieved. I worked so hard for this race in particular all year, and I knew going into the race that I would not be happy with anything but gold. Crossing the finish line there was pure relief that I had done it, and I didn't have to feel the emotions I had last year [coming second in Glasgow].

"I knew that they would probably look to me in the sprint, and I didn't want to get caught, there were riders quickly closing on us. I took the front and I was confident that as long as I didn't go too early that I could hold them off."

Imogen Wolff worked hard to support her teammate into position, but suffered a nasty crash early on in the race. Even after the early adversity, Wolff continued to battle through the peloton and came home in an impressive sixth place. 

Carys Lloyd and debutant teammates Esther Wong and Arabella Blackburn delivered their roles confidently and professionally, successfully executing the team’s aim of getting a Brit on the top step and finished 26th, 36th and 46th respectively.

Junior men’s road race

Seb Grindley delivered a hard-fought ride to take the silver medal and become the first ever British male to get on a junior road race podium.

After a fairly controlled first lap, the race passed the start line heading into lap two and Lorenzo Finn (Italy) launched an attack, creating a five-rider group, with Brit Sebastian Grindley in the chase group, hot on their tail just eight seconds down.

Grindley and others bridged the gap into the lead group, with the chasers 15 seconds down and the peloton around a minute down, with fellow Brit Oliver Dawson with the bunch.

The second lap saw Finn continue his dominance as he took 17 second lead on the chase group of 15, with Grindley maintaining strong position in that group. The chase continued to ebb and flow between groups of fours and fives, with Grindley consistently in the mix as other riders struggled with being exposed to the elements.

With 38km to go, the gap between Finn and the chasing five continued to decrease, before he was finally caught and a front group of four formed with Finn, Albert Philipsen (Denmark), Hector Alvarez (Spain) and Grindley.

Heading into the final lap, the repetitive climbs and relentless rain took its toll on the leaders as Philipsen crashed, and the other three riders split up with over a minute between each – with Grindley in the second place position.

With Finn over a minute ahead, Grindley wasn’t able to pull back the gap and took a sensational second place, finishing his junior career with a silver meal.

Debutants Oliver Dawson and Elliot Rowe toughed out the grippy course, with Rowe suffering a mechanical and Dawson fighting for his place in the peloton in a valiant first world championships performance. Dawson crossed the finish line in 24th position, while Rowe came home 73rd.

On his world championships experience, Grindley said: “It was a tough race, in pretty grim conditions. It was nothing us Brits can't handle. I was sort of doing a rain dance last night hoping that it would be pretty grim, and it was. It was grim for myself, but you've got to think about the others, other people are as used to this [weather]. It made for a really tough race, and I kept myself on the front foot all day and crossed the line in second place in the end, so I'm buzzing."

Men’s C3 road race

It was double delight in the men’s C3 road race, as Fin Graham achieved his third world title in a row, while teammate Ben Watson secured a fantastic silver medals.

The Brits managed the race well and stayed together, as Watson initially got into the lead group, with Graham quickly bridging the gap. On a technical circuit, the duo showed their bike-handling abilities and by the third time check had pulled back a short-lived split group and were working together to push the pace and make things tough for their rivals.

The Brits eventually dropped the competition heading into the final kilometres, and with the more powerful sprint of the two, Graham stormed over the finish line, with his compatriot hot on his heels to take the silver medal.

On being Paralympic and world champion, Graham said: "[It's] special to now be Para and world champion," said Graham. "It was classic British conditions and it showed with two British guys up front.

"There was over 1,000 metres of climbing and 70-odd kilometres - that's a lot of climbing. But descending in the wet, we're better than other nations, because we have experience.

"It's class to be able to ride with Ben and for him to get on the podium."

Men’s C4 road race

Archie Atkinson put in a strong fight with the field stacked against him in the men’s C4 road race, to come away with a respectable fourth place finish.

Atkinson stuck with the three dominant French riders, following their moves to make the initial breakaway and be in with a chance of making the podium. However, surrounded by three French teammates, Atkinson spent the majority of the 90.9km course responding to attacks as they worked together to put him out of contention.

The 20-year-old put in a valiant effort to challenge the French, but only had so much energy to expend and ran out of steam on the fast-paced city-centre circuit, losing a lap and crossing the finish line in fourth place.

Men’s C5 road race

2023 C5 world champion Will Bjergfelt delivered a strong ride, consistently featuring in the front group and working hard to animate the race in tricky conditions. At the mid-point of the race, Bjergfelt dropped 24 seconds down from the lead group, but managed to fight his way back into contention heading into the lakeside circuit.

A mechanical for Daniel Abraham Gebru opened up the race for Bjergfelt to come back into the frame, but the Brit was unfortunately outsprinted across the line and finished fourth overall.

Tomorrow’s road races will see Matt Robertson content the men’s C2 road race, while Felix Barrow contests the men’s 2. Matt Brennan, Joe Blackmore, Oliver Stockwell, Bob Donaldson, Louis Sutton and Callum Thornley will take to the course to contest the under-23 men’s jersey.

You can watch the under-23 road race on Discovery+ and all para-cycling road races on Eurovision.