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.

It propels Ferguson past 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.

Riders compete during stage three. Photograph: Alex Broadway/Getty Images

The stage was marred by a number of crashes with several riders forced to abandon, among them previous race leader Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal). .

“This was one of the races I was most excited to do this season, and I really wanted to come here in good form and show Britain how good I can be, and I think I proved that today,” said Ferguson after the finish. “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 that 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. So I didn’t look back and just kept going.”

Looking ahead to the final stage in Glasgow on Sunday, Ferguson added: “I’m a little bit nervous now, it’s going to be a rough night’s sleep, I really want to hold on to this jersey, so we have to look and make a plan for tomorrow. 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.”