World Championships: Julie Bego denies Great Britain’s Cat Ferguson to win gold in Women’s Junior Road Race

France’s Julie Bego sealed an impressive solo victory in the Women’s Junior Road Race at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, denying home favourite Cat Ferguson a fairytale gold medal.

Bego made her move with 20km of the 70.3km race to go, building a gap and maintaining her lead to the line to finish nine seconds clear of Ferguson and Belgium’s Fleur Moors, who rounded out the podium in third.

After the race, Bego paid tribute to her French team-mates that helped her clinch gold.

“It’s two months that I’ve been telling everyone that I’ll be world champion,” Bego said.

“Today I made it happen. I’ve worked so hard, and there have been six months that I’ve thought about it.

“I was afraid that I wanted it so much I’d make mistakes. I had an amazing team around me, and today I knew that success wouldn’t just be about how strong I was but how the team would be there.

“The atmosphere in the team was amazing… I’m the world champion but I also had the best team today.”

The race began in Glasgow’s famous George Square, with Great Britain setting the early pace.

It was a contest between four nations in the early phase until it became a battle to the line between riders from Great Britain, France, Belgium and Italy.

Carys Lloyd of Great Britain upped the pace with 43km to go but was caught by the pack a few kilometres later before Bego made the decisive move on the penultimate lap.

She quickly opened up a significant gap at and began the final circuit 15 seconds clear as she closed in on victory in tricky conditions as a short Scottish shower swept the area.

Ferguson launched an attack in an effort to hunt down her rival but failed to make a significant dent in her deficit as the race entered the final 10km.

Belgium’s Xaydee van Dinaey and Fleur Moors were next to attack, followed by Italy’s Federica Venturelli, but nobody could match the Frenchwoman, whose advantage was an almost-unassailable 30 seconds with 2km to go, allowing her the opportunity to savour her ride to glory.

Bego admitted she thought she might have mistimed her attack but that she took a few calculated risks to hang on to her advantage.

“I was told to stay quiet for the first few laps and come to the front in the third lap and in the end attacked before the last lap.

“I was worried I went too far out, and I wouldn’t have the strength to go all the way to the finish.

“I convinced myself that I wasn’t going to make it just to be focused. I took a few risks in the corners but now I’m world champion.”