OLYMPIC champion Katie Archibald was keen to get back in the saddle.
While the likes of four-time Olympic champion Laura Kenny – nee Trott, who in September married six-time gold medallist Jason Kenny – and Joanna Rowsell-Shand are still on a post-Rio break, Archibald is accumulating experience and race wins.
The 22-year-old from Milngavie, known as one end of the West Highland Way, is concentrating on riding solo, having dedicated herself to the team pursuit since moving to Manchester in November 2013.
“It was being able to go back to training that settled the mind again,” Archibald, who is known for her colourful hair and tattoos, said.
“If you enforce the separation it encourages that burning desire to get back into it
“It’s useful to have that craving that you want to get going again.”
Archibald, who had a knee injury after falling off her motorbike last year which saw her miss March’s Track World Championships in London and put her Olympic place in jeopardy, insists she would still be racing, even if the first post-Rio Track World Cup was elsewhere.
“I want to get racing this season,” said Archibald, who raced once in 2016 prior to the Olympics.
The best thing she has done since winning gold with Kenny, Rowsell-Shand and Elinor Barker in the four-rider, four-kilometres team pursuit was a holiday in Iceland with her friend Fiona.
The pair hired a jeep and drove off-road, staying in B&Bs and “getting to know the place”.
Many athletes speak of post-Olympic blues after achieving a lifelong goal, but Archibald is honest when discussing down days.
“None more than before,” she said.
Being a track cyclist, going round in circles and turning only left, can be a monotonous existence. Archibald has sought to make changes to keep her stimulated on and off the track.
That has meant moving in with her dad in Paisley and training at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome which will host the three-day Track World Cup, which begins on Friday.
Archibald is still often in Manchester – her UK Sport-funded pursuit bike is stored there, so to practise that discipline she must go to the National Cycling Centre – but she is enjoying training with the likes of Neah Evans, the Scottish road and track rider.
“It’s not permanent,” Archibald added. “At the moment, because the team pursuit focus has been put on the shoulders of the academy team, I have an opportunity to focus on individual goals, rather than team goals. I can basically be anywhere.”
It has been going well. Archibald won last week’s women’s omnium at the London Six Day, after earlier in the month claiming two European titles in Paris, in the new-look omnium and the individual pursuit.
“It’s dead exciting when it’s going well,” Archibald added.
“I guess I’ve got to try to hold on to these memories while they last.
“Hard training means they’re not going to last forever. I’m not expecting to continue this kind of success for the whole season.”
She is hoping to cling on to her form for Glasgow, at least.
She added: “Home crowd, that’s really important for me.
“I really want to do well in front of my friends, my family and the crowd I started out with the support of.”
She is enthusiastic about the changes to the omnium since Rio, which means it is now four bunch races in one day, rather than three bunch races and three timed disciplines over two days.
Archibald said: “What I enjoy most about omnium racing, or any bike racing, is just the bunch races.”
There will also be a women’s Madison – a two-rider relay, with points for sprints – in Glasgow, which excites Archibald.
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