KATIE ARCHIBALD has won almost everything there is to win in cycling.

Olympic, world and European champion, as well as world record holder, the 24-year-old has been there, done it and bought the t-shirt when it comes to winning major championship gold medals but all of these titles have been won by the Glaswegian under the banner of GB.

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Which is why it would mean so much to Archibald to win gold at these Commonwealth Games - because she would be winning it for Scotland.

“It means more, emotionally, to win a medal for Scotland,” she said.

“It’s just national pride. Which gets confused into ugly things so often that it’s nice to celebrate it in a friendly sporting context.

“That’s the same whether it’s representing Great Britain or representing Scotland.

“Even if you’re a kid, representing your region, you take pride in being associated with your friends, with your family, all wearing the same t-shirt, saying that we’re doing this for us.”

Archibald will be one of the busiest Team Scotland athletes over the next week-or-so; she is due to race the individual pursuit, the points race, the scratch race, the road time trial and the road race and so will scarcely have time to catch her breath in Gold Coast but the schedule has worked out almost to perfection for her.

Archibald will begin her quest for medals tomorrow, in the individual pursuit. She already has one Commonwealth games medal to her name - a bronze from the points race at Glasgow 2014 - in her locker but as a three-time European individual pursuit champion, there are high hopes that she will fulfil her ambition of winning gold for Scotland as early as tomorrow.

“The individual pursuit being at the start of the programme means it’s a big opportunity for me to focus on that,” she said.

“It’s a chance to solidify my name as a world class pursuit rider. The individual pursuit hasn’t gone right for me at the last few World Championships, and it’s not an Olympic event.

“But it’s the kind of thing where I turn up to nationals, surprise myself with how well I’m going, then can’t carry it through to the rest of the season.

“I’m European individual pursuit champion but I’ve never figured on the World podium. so this is a chance to stamp my name on the event at the Commonwealth Games.”

With almost all of the top endurance nations in attendance, Archibald will have her work cut out to grab the top step of the podium. But despite the strength of the competition, her success over the past few years means that the expectations on her shoulders are high, to say the least.

There has been a suggestion though, that with the Commonwealth Games of lesser importance in a global perspective than the Olympic Games, Archibald and riders of her quality will be somewhat more relaxed heading into Gold Coast 2018. Not in the slightest, she insists.

“You get people saying to me: ‘Oh, you can’t be nervous about this race or that race, because you’ve been to a World Championships and an Olympics’,” she said.

“But I still get just as nervous for a track league race, because there is that expectation.

“You can’t lose those little races or people will be saying: ‘Oh, maybe she’s not that good, after all. She couldn’t even beat my auntie Janine…’”

“So, I always feel the pressure. It never really ends.”

Gold Coast will be something of a family affair for Archibald, with her older brother, John, who is a new recruit to track cycling, making remarkable progress over the past six months to gain selection for the Commonwealth Games and she admits that she could not be more delighted to see him make his Games debut.

Archibald has been a full-time cyclist for a number of years whereas her brother combines his training and competition schedule with his day-job at the family bed business.

His rapid improvement has not only made her wonder what he could have achieved had he taken cycling seriously sooner, but it also makes her appreciate the charmed she lives as a professional athlete. And it does, unfortunately for her, give her dad more ammunition to accuse her of not training as hard as her sibling.

“John’s progress has been impressive,” she said.

“If he’d just started racing when we said he should have started, who knows what could have happened? He spent so much of his life just hacking around on a bike. But it’s been exciting to watch.

“My brother just stopped working in our family business a few months ago so it does make me appreciate being funded to be full-time.

“My dad winds me up about it all the time, telling me: “John trains much harder than you … and he’s working full-time …”

“I’m guilty of coming home, staying with my dad in Paisley for the weekend, and when I do that I’m coming home for a break – I’m not going to be doing hard training.

“So inevitably, he turns round and says: ‘Wow, you don’t train hard at all! You should see what John’s doing!’”