{"id":394877,"date":"2026-01-28T11:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394877\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:17:18","slug":"the-tactic-paid-off-cat-ferguson-wins-opening-race-of-season-in-mallorca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394877\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The tactic paid off’ \u2013 Cat Ferguson wins opening race of season in Mallorca"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cat Ferguson<\/a> began her 2026 season with a commanding sprint victory on Sunday at the Trofeo Llucmajor one-day race in Mallorca, Spain.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Brit, now in her second full year with WorldTour squad Movistar, came off the wheel of her team-mate Arlenis Sierra, and held off Lidl-Trek<\/a>\u2019s Clara Copponi down the finishing straight of the third-tier event.<\/p>\n

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The victory marked Ferguson\u2019s sixth as a pro, and followed on from three last season, including her first at WorldTour level<\/a> at the Tour of Britain Women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Speaking after the finish line on Sunday, Ferguson said: \u201cThe team for sure was the key today, with the wind. The victory would not have been possible without all the girls\u2019 efforts, which was exaggerated even more by the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager came into the finish of the 134.8km race in an 11-rider lead group, which had torn off the peloton as an echelon. The Brit had two team-mates in the group \u2013 Arlenis Sierra and Aude Biannic \u2013 while UAE Team ADQ<\/a> counted five riders at the front.<\/p>\n

\u201c100% the team and the team plan were the key,\u201d said Ferguson. \u201cWe stayed calm, and we are the ones who made the race, and in the end, I think that tactic paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cArlenis was my final girl for the lead-out, and I\u2019ve already learned so much from her in one race. She\u2019s really someone I look up to, and she showed me just how to sprint. For sure, the win wouldn\u2019t have been possible without her today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ferguson will have the chance to extend her 100% record on Monday afternoon when she rides the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx, another third-tier Mallorcan one-day race.<\/p>\n

The Brit\u2019s spring calendar will then take her to WorldTour events Omloop Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>, Trofeo Alfredo Binda<\/a>, Milan-San Remo Women<\/a>, In Flanders Fields – in Wevelgem<\/a>, Tour of Flanders<\/a>, Amstel Gold Race<\/a> and the Giro d\u2019Italia Women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Giro is a big goal for me, and I hope I can improve to show that I\u2019m good enough to go to the Tour [de France Femmes avec Zwift]<\/a> as well because if so then that would become my main goal of the season<\/a>,\u201d Ferguson told Cycling Weekly last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to prove that I am one of the riders deserving of a place throughout the season, and show the team that I\u2019m in good shape and that I can be an asset to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cat Ferguson began her 2026 season with a commanding sprint victory on Sunday at the Trofeo Llucmajor one-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-394877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}