It was a thrilling second day of action at the Youth Tour of Scotland, which saw both Boys and Girls fields race two stages at St David’s, just down the road from Strathallan School. The big winner on the day was Max Bufton (Wales) with two stage wins, the first of which coming in a tense Team Time Trial in the morning, before an attritional and frantic Stage 3 in the afternoon.

The very cold early morning with conditions barely above freezing was quickly abated by the arrival of some much-welcomed sunshine, as the Girls opened the days racing with the Team Time Trial (TTT).

The early pace was set by the two Scottish squads of Tay (West) and North East, who completed the 6.9km course in just over 10 minutes.

As the squads with later start times, who in theory should be the quickest due to seeding, came in, it was clear that 10 minute-barrier would be broken. The first of the teams to better that mark was British Cycling West Midlands with a time of 9.54. Their time in the hotseat was short-lived as a rapid burst to the line by British Cycling North West saw go a whopping sixteen seconds quicker.

However, yet again it was Cat Ferguson and her Yorkshire squad taking the stage win – the final team off the start ramp surpassing the time of North West by a full ten seconds. For Ferguson it was the completion a hat-trick of stages, having won both of Saturday’s stages – her supremacy couldn’t be challenged, could it?

The early pacesetters in the Boys’ TTT were the squad of Cogset Papyrus with a time just north of nine minutes over the 6.9km course. However, the squad from British Cycling South produced the first ride of the day to break nine minutes.

The lead was swapped several times as the times tumbled down, with BC Central and East Midlands both briefly leading before Team Wales produced an excellent time of 8 minutes and 26 seconds, but could the squads from BC North West and BC Eastern beat the Welsh squad’s time?

The answer was no, as Wales were able to hold on by a margin of two seconds as the last two English regions finished by just outside the Welsh squad’s time. With the top two riders on the general classification on the same time going into the stage and then both teams matching each other’s times, there was no change to the leadership during this thrilling battle between Will Gillbank (BC Eastern) and Seb Grindley (BC North West) for the yellow jersey.

The afternoon once again saw the girl’s off first, and given the lack of a big climb in today’s road race route, one could be forgiven for thinking there may have been a lack of attacks. Oh, how wrong those predictions would be.

BC South East came into the stage with a plan – to spoil Yorkshire’s party. Carys Lloyd and Lucy Bezenet both individually attacked and had each gained more than 15 seconds at different points of the race, forcing the BC Yorkshire squad to chase down the riders in order to protect Cat Ferguson’s yellow jersey.

The race did however come back together with two laps to go – with the Yorkshire squad leading the charge in the front of the bunch and they would take that all the way to finish – but for the first time this weekend they would miss out on the spoils.

Ferguson once again produced a strong sprint but was swamped late with for Erin Boothman (Scotland Tay – West) claiming not only victory on the stage, but the blue jersey for best Scot. Greta Carey (BC Central) finished just behind in second, with the podium rounded off by Carys Lloyd – who moved up into second place overall via the various time bonifications she won on the stage.

On crossing the line first, Boothman said:

“The sprint went very early on, so I was just following the wheels to get my positioning right so I could take advantage of riders dying in the last few metres, meaning that if you were on the right wheel at the front, you could just come round them.”

Ferguson’s fourth on the stage was still more than enough for her to remain in the lead in the General Classification and the Points Classification, while her Yorkshire squad retained the lead in the Team Classification.

Leader Ferguson told Scottish Cycling:

“I went a little bit too early in the sprint on Stage 3, so a couple of riders just came round me at the finish but hopefully tomorrow goes well – the course looks interest. Imogen [Wolff] and I have a plan for the Kermesse so that’ll be fun”

Isabel Mayes (LEGI Composite) will wear the Polka Dot jersey on the final stage as leader in the Queen of the Mountains classification.

In the short recess between the Girls and Boys races the weather turned for the worst as the so far absent changeable Scottish spring weather made an unwelcome return.

The early laps saw the racing at a fairly sedate pace, with the sprint primes determining two changes to the yellow jersey virtually. Seb Grindley’s (BC Eastern) second at the first sprint prime meant that he was in the virtual lead, with Seth Dunwoody (Ireland Development) pushing the yellow jersey of Will Gillbank down into third on the road.

Before long though BC South’s Ollie Boarer quickly found himself 23 seconds out in front, but counter attacks and a motivated chase saw his move quickly snuffed out. As conditions deteriorated so did the predictability of the race; a crash in the peloton and a smartly timed attack from three riders saw the trio of Joe Cosgrove (BC North West), Max Bufton (Wales) and Josh Jackson (BC West Mids) go clear.

The peloton – or what remained of it – could not organise itself in to a coherent chase until the final few kilometres, and with the breakaway trio finding themselves 14 seconds clear with 3km to go, it was anyone’s guess who would come out on top.

Riders crossing the finishing line looked like they had just completed a cross race, such were the mud splattered faces and jerseys, but despite this Wales’ Max Bufton was able to stay clear and crossed the line just ahead of Joe Cosgrove, with Jackson four seconds further back. The bunch almost caught the trio on the line as winner of the bunch sprint and Peter Clark award – Seth Dunwoody (Ireland Development) - was only three seconds behind the third placed rider.

Cosgrove’s frustration on the stage would later become delight as he leapfrogged the top four to take the leaders’ yellow jersey.

The new leader told Scottish Cycling:

“I’ve just got to finish tomorrow to try to secure the yellow jersey. The team worked well together, and we, North West, worked perfectly. It was important to stay at the front and stay out of trouble.”

Finlay Hawker (BC Central retained his lead in the polka-dot jersey and Ahron Dick (Scotland East and Central) won out in the Scottish rider classification after surviving in the front bunch on Stage 3.

Tomorrow’s stage will take pass through Strathallan School’s grounds on multiple occasions, with a fast, frantic and technical kermesse set to be the perfect fanfare to a great 2022 edition of the race.

Full results can be found here.