Women’s cycling is a discipline that, fortunately, has more and more global relevance. This past road season has been a success. The Tour de France Femmes was widely followed around the world, thanks to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s victory over Demi Vollering. This may encourage more young women to take up the sport, but problems remain, according to Cat Ferguson.The young Movistar Team star recently appeared on The Domestique Hotseat, where she took the opportunity to make a statement in the form of a warning. In her opinion, we have to take advantage of the boom in women’s cycling, and we have to do it by investing more money, because currently there is not enough in the development structures.
“There isn’t enough money at this point to have that good under-23 setup in the women’s sport,” Ferguson said. “I think now there’s almost a bit of a craze about juniors, and if you don’t make it to the World Tour out of juniors, then some of them think well that’s it, I’m never going professional or anything.”
“That’s awful that they think that because you’re at the age of 18 when you leave the juniors and of course it’s not over. But there are no sort of steps or examples where you can look of girls who have gone to a good under-23 team and raced lots of under-23 races and not being just completely thrown into a World Tour race on an under-23 team,” she added.
“It’s crucial for the continuity of the younger generation in this sport, and also, it would be able to increase our numbers in participation as well,” she said. “I think it is crucial that that is the next thing we sort of work on, and hopefully lots of the teams, World Tour teams can make that change. I think that’s where it needs to come from.”
Cat Ferguson is one of the stars of women’s cycling at the age of 19
The 19-year-old starlet belongs to those who have been thrown into the deep end already in her first road season, but unlike some others that have struggled, Ferguson’s talent came to the fore already in 2025 with a stage win and second overall at the home Tour of Britain, among other impressive results.
But not every talent is ready to perform straight out of the junior category and their talents need more nurturing. That’s why the stepping stone of under-23 level is so important for women’s cycling, just as has been the case for decades in men’s cycling.
A proposal as a solution
For example, Natascha Knaven den Ouden, founder of NXTG Racing, has called for the creation of a European development league in women’s cycling in order to combat the current situation.
“As long as there is no solid calendar of European continental races, talent development will stagnate. A salary means nothing if there are no races to participate in,” said Knaven den Ouden in a post via LinkedIn.
“The cyclists are there. The races are there. The organizers are there. What’s missing is a structure that connects everything,” the director outlined the main obstacle.