Bradford cyclist Abby-Mae Parkinson produced a magnificent effort to crack the top ten in the European Youth Olympic Festival time trial.

But the 15-year-old insisted that her job was only half done for Team GB with today’s road race still to come.

Parkinson completed the course in Utrecht in a time of 13min 59.33sec, good enough for ninth overall from the 73 starters at the Festival.

Indeed, Parkinson – who does not turn 16 until the end of the month – was less than half a minute away from a place on the podium, a fantastic achievement considering the British squad were not using special time-trial bikes in the Netherlands.

She could not hide her delight at her achievement against the best female competitors in her age group from across Europe.

“I’m so happy that I was in the top ten because that was my target coming into the race,” said Parkinson.

“The time trial is one of my preferred events so I wanted to do well and show what I could do and I think I did that.

“The time trials we normally do in England are a bit longer than that and we did not have time-trial bikes.

“But it was great to see the level of competition – it is so strong, far stronger than I expected – and some of these girls are so tall!”

While Parkinson was ninth, her team-mates Grace Garner and Charlotte Broughton were 23rd and 31st respectively. And with Garner the reigning British national champion for their age group in the road race, attentions now turn to today’s action.

Parkinson is looking forward to putting in a shift to help her friend and team-mate secure a medal for Team GB.

“I feel like the pressure is off for me now because I have got the top ten that I wanted in the time trial,” she said.

“Now I want to work as part of the team to get Grace in a great position for the sprint finish if that happens in the road race.

“I will lead her out and hopefully she can do the business because she is great in the road race, whereas I prefer the time trial.”

* The British Olympic Association prepare and lead British athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. They work in partnership with sport national governing bodies to enhance Olympic success and are responsible for championing the Olympic values. See more at www.teamgb.com.