Cat Ferguson on her junior debut that got her a World Tour contract: "I completely didn’t expect any of this"

To interview Cat Ferguson, you have to wait until 4pm, once she has returned home from her day at school. Next year, after she finishes her exams and will join Spanish squad Movistar, one of the top-performing women’s WorldTour teams, becoming one of the youngest riders ever to compete at cycling’s highest level.

"I got a little card today from our head of year saying well done," she tells Cycling Weekly. But among the other pupils, Ferguson likes to keep her life as a cyclist on the down-low. "They like to talk about it, but I don’t like to talk about it with them at school," she says.

"I completely didn’t expect any of this," Ferguson says. "I didn’t expect to be the rising star, which shows that I didn’t expect any of the results. Coming into the year, I was so pleased with where I was. I didn’t expect to win the first Nations Cups and things like that. Then, progressing, I realised where I was and what I could achieve."

Now, Ferguson is eight months away from turning pro. WorldTour teams, it turns out, have been after her signature since March, with Movistar among a gaggle to contact her throughout the season. "I spoke to a couple of teams, maybe about three or four," she explains. "Then Movistar approached me after Flanders, and I just clicked with them best, to be honest."