The 2025 spring Classics campaign is a collection of firsts for Cat Ferguson, simply by virtue of it being the 18-year-old's first season racing at elite level.
Following a podium at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and a top-20 at Milan-San Remo, she showed herself again on Thursday by going on the attack in the Classic Brugge-De Panne, riding solo for over 30km.
Ferguson, who stepped up straight from the junior ranks this year, held onto a gap of just 20 seconds during her move and was eventually reeled in with 2.5km to go. In a post-race interview with Felix Mattis, she admitted to suffering from a minor illness but wouldn't use that as an excuse.
"I was told it was only around 15, 20 seconds, so I was trying not to look back because I knew how little that gap was," Ferguson said.
"It needed to be more for it to stay in the final. On a better day, hopefully, I could make the gap bigger, but I'm a little bit ill and have had a few days off since the last race. No excuses, but I will try again next time."
Ferguson had planned to practice her positioning in the flat, sprinter-friendly race. Instead, she ended up in the breakaway. That move allowed her to practice other skills, she said.
"You learn a lot being out at the front, mentally – how to push yourself and to keep going when I knew my gap was 20 seconds for the whole time. So I think, for sure, I learned the most I could today."
The wind didn't blow the race apart in De Moeren as it sometimes does in the Classic Brugge-De Panne. However, riding solo off the front meant that Ferguson could get in some impromptu time trialling and aerodynamics practice, in addition to that focus on the mental side of racing.
"It's so important, especially in a flat race like this," Ferguson said of aerodynamics. "The wind's not super strong today, but aero is everything, especially when it's just you, solo in a breakaway. I had a big focus on keeping my head down as much as I could."
In the end, she was caught before the final run to the line, leaving Lorena Wiebes to claim yet another victory as she beat Chiara Consonni in the closing sprint. There's more to look forward to for Ferguson in the coming weeks, however.
Despite her young age, the reigning junior road race and time trial world champion Movistar have listed Ferguson for a full programme of top-level Classics. So far, she's rewarded her team with a series of positive rides, and debuts at the two cobbled Monuments are among her next outings.
"Next, I have Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday," she explained. "And then I do Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Brabant and Flèche, and then sort of a rest after the Belgian Classics."
