Cat Ferguson's Paris-Roubaix debut left her with road rash, bruises, and a shoulder that was "maybe dislocated a little bit" after a roadside fan stepped into the course and caused a heavy fall, but the junior world champion is already cleared to race again and looking ahead to her next objectives. On Friday she will race Brabantse Pijl, and then her next start will come in early May as she makes her first appearance in a WorldTour stage race at the Vuelta a España Femenina.
In other words, that Roubaix crash was painful and frustrating, but won't have too big an effect on her racing calendar, which has already been busy in her first full season as a WorldTour pro with Movistar. After winning Binche-Chimay-Binche late last year, the 18-year-old Brit again showed in her season debut a month ago just why she is one of the sport's most promising young riders as she rode onto the podium at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
At the same time, she has also faced a steep learning curve racing the biggest events in the world against top competition.
"I feel I have learned a lot, but I'm not yet managing to apply it, just because it's a professional sport, and it takes time to be able to apply these things," she told Escape Collective this week. "I definitely feel like I'm learning so much, from positioning to crashing and getting back up again to fueling."
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