Great Britain Cycling Team’s Sophie Wright took a fantastic third place in the junior women’s race at the UEC European Road Championships.

The 17-year-old, who became junior European mountain bike champion earlier this year, pipped Italy’s Letizia Paternoster to the line to take bronze.

Gold went to Germany’s Liane Lippert, who broke clear of the bunch to claim the European title with Italy’s Elisa Balsamo leading the rest of the pack home to win silver.

In the junior men's race, despite Rob Scott being involved in a long and sustained breakaway, the young British riders were unable to crack the top ten with France's Nicolas Malle taking the home win.

Early breakaway

For several laps of the race in the early stages, Russia’s Mariia Novolodskaia was out on her own, having made a lone attack on the first climb of the Côte de Cadoudal.

That lead was as big as 1:40 at one point as the young Russian showed her strength on the climbs and descents.

After the second of the five laps, the fight-back began as 20 riders attacked to close the gap on Novolodskaia, with Sophie Wright working hard to reel in the leader.

With two laps to go, the catch was made, the front group having grown to 34 riders in total.

No-one seemed prepared to make a move until the final climb, when the pace suddenly kicked up and proved too much for many.

Wright continued to attack, as did the Italian duo Balsamo and Paternoster, who moved to the front after the final descent, well-positioned for the sprint finish.

But they hadn’t reckoned on the form of German Lippert, who cruised past them to take the victory, afforded enough time to celebrate on the line.

Wright managed to split the Italians in the sprint finish to claim an excellent third place, with team mate Jessica Roberts finishing strongly in 11th, 17 seconds behind.

Eleanor Dickenson was 24th, Lauren Dolan 29th, with Henrietta Colborne finishing in 47th and Emily Wadsworth 52nd.

Results

Junior men

With the junior men facing nine laps of the challenging Plumelac course, there was always a chance that the field would be significantly spread out - and so it proved to be.

In the opening exchanges, a number of breaks failed to stick before Huys (Belgium), Degrandcourt and Montchamps (France), Lavric (Slovenia), Schneiter (Switzerland) and Covi (Italy) managed to pull clear with around 100km to go.

With the lead up to around 50 seconds at one point, Great Britain Cycling Team's Ethan Hayter was part of a small group that broke clear of the peloton to join the leading group.

Hayter stayed in the front pack for around 30km, to be joined by team mate Rob Scott with 687km remaining. As soon as Scott bridged, Hayer was dropped, leaving Scott riding in the leading pack for several laps before Pogacar of Slovenia and Battistella of Italy broke away with 27km to go.

With two laps remaining, Malle and Jeanniere of France teamed up with Switzerland's Bisseger and Eekhoff of the Netherlands to leave Scott behind, the young British rider exhausted following his earlier efforts.

Italy's Filippo Zana bridged the gap to support Battistella before taking off for the finish line himself, running out of steam just shy of the line. That created the opportunity for France's Nicolas Malle to cross the line first and to become European champion, closely followed by team mate Emilien Jeanniere to make it a home one-two.

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar took bronze with Ethan Hayter finishing highest for Great Britain Cycling Team in 15th, 10 seconds behind the race winner. Team mate Adam Hartley finished on the same time in 38th.

Fred Wright was 53rd, 56 seconds behind winner Malle, with Rob Scott 58th, Tom Pidcock 61st and Etienne Georgi 102nd.

Results