WEYMOUTH’s junior world champion Rebecca Raybould felt her scratch race triumph was “surprising” as she starts to come to terms with her success.

The 17-year-old won the rainbow jersey after breaking away solo with 11 laps to go in Aigle, Switzerland.

Now, back in the country, that winning feeling is still struggling to sink in.

Raybould told Echosport: “It was really surprising. I didn’t think I was going to win it.

“I knew there were a lot of fast riders in the race so I knew I had to make an attack early.

“So, I just sat in and it wasn’t a quick race. I knew I had to wait for one big attack and I had to do it on my own. As soon as I went, they started chasing, so I didn’t think I was going to stay away.

“But I almost gained a lap because the track is short.

The teen added: “Then the Canadian rider attacked and it sped up the group. But, I knew I had it with a lap to go.

“I was trying to plan my celebration and I was thinking ‘do I celebrate? Do I ride in, what do I do?

“I was worried I was going to crash if I took my hands off the bars.”

Luckily, Raybould managed to get both hands up in the air to celebrate her extraordinary victory and pull on the rainbow jersey.

“I didn’t know what to do. “When I first came off (the track) I had to remind myself that I was at a World Championships,” she explained.

“My family were so happy, I think my dad bought everyone a beer.”

Alex Jolliffe, Weymouth’s other participant at the championships, was watching the events unfold in his hotel room, shouting Raybould round the track whilst watching the stream.

He added: “I was watching it up in the ski resort where we were staying.

“I was shouting my head off. We (the British team) were all watching it and there were some pretty big celebrations going on when she won.”

Jolliffe impressed as well at the championships, getting some good results in the keirin and the sprint where it was only crashes that denied him the opportunity of a medal.

The pair have been in Derby this week racing the British Junior Track Championships, where Jolliffe won the national sprint title and Raybould bagged a silver in the individual pursuit, after an action-packed month on the boards that has also included time racing the Junior European Track Championships in Italy.

The pair’s season is set to finish after the competition in the Midlands and they are both now setting their sights on achieving a full-time spot on the British Cycling programme.