'Going off the side of a ravine, there's nothing like that to put things in perspective' - GB junior disappointed with sixth at World Championships after crashing early

While Cat Ferguson was on her way to a second gold medal of the World Championships, riding a near flawless race in Zürich, her teammate Imogen Wolff was having more of a torrid time on the roads to the east of Swiss city.

The 18-year-old is one of the most promising riders on junior scene, and won bronze in Tuesday's junior time trial, but Thursday's race did not go to plan.

On the opening climb of the 73.5km race, Binz, in very wet conditions, Wolff crashed, and fell off the road. Understandably, it affected her whole race, with the British rider unable to make the final selection. She still finished sixth, having battled back, but was disappointed with her day.

"[I'm] not going to lie, it didn't go to plan for me personally," Wolff explained post-race. "I'm not embarrassed to say I wanted more from this. Going off the side of a ravine, there's nothing like that to put things in perspective. In that moment, I didn't think I was going to get up, so to walk away with pretty minor injuries, and for Cat to take the win at the end is everything we hoped for.

"We said at the start we wanted a GB jersey on the top step, and I'm disappointed I couldn't have spent more of a role in that, I spent like 30km chasing, so I couldn't be there with her and protect her."

"Going up the first climb my front wheel got wiped out and it was off the side of a ravine," she said of her crash, which wasn't shown on TV. "It felt like I was falling for quite a while. I spent a lot of the time on the back foot chasing. I'm just relieved that my injuries are only minor."

It wasn't just the crash itself and the injuries which directly impacted her, but what they meant for the rest of the day, with over 40km still to go on the day.

"I was in the red, I spent 30km just pressing and pressing," Wolff said. "I managed to stay with the front girls up the main climb, attacked, and then yeah I just blew my doors. I spent too many matches. I dropped all my carbs when I crashed, my bottles and gels went flying.

"I was running on empty and it just caught up with me. Maybe the adrenaline meant I didn't race as smart as I could have done. For Cat to win is great though, that's all we wanted as a team, a GB jersey on the top step."

Wolff has had a successful year, with two junior World Championships titles on the track, along with promising road results throughout the season, but her final junior race left a bitter taste in her mouth. She will ride for Visma-Lease a Bike next season.

"The result itself, it feels a bit irrelevant," Wolff added. "Sixth or 66th to me is pretty similar because it's not on the podium, and that's all anyone remembers. [But I'm] finished, last junior race done, and I'm excited to step into the pro ranks next year."