Elinor Barker is hoping to get two for the price of one when Scotland hosts the first ever combined cycling world championships in August.
An Olympic and five-time world champion on the track, Barker has been focusing more on the road this season and said the opportunity to compete in both disciplines on home turf this summer would be unique.
“Racing a home worlds doesn’t come around very often,” Barker told the PA news agency. “So to be able to race effectively two home worlds – with the track and the road – would be phenomenal.”
Given her growing ambitions across two disciplines, Barker has put her name forward for several different events across the road and track at the Championships, and must now await the selection process.
Racing everything she has entered is out of the question. This experimental new format for a world championships, due to be used every four years before an Olympics, involves plenty of schedule clashes and riders who favour more than one discipline must compromise.
“I’ve put myself up for more races than is physically possible,” Barker said. “I guess the best-case scenario is to have to choose because there are clashes between some of the road and track events.
“I’ve put myself up for six races and if I get one or two, that will be fantastic and I’ll go all out for those. Just to be able to race would be a fantastic experience.”
Barker long planned to shift her focus more to the road after the Tokyo Olympics, signing a long-term contract with the Uno-X team, although the process was put back after she became pregnant. The 28-year-old welcomed son Nico last March.
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So much has changed for the Welshwoman since then that she had no idea what to expect of herself this season, but she has relished the challenge.
“It’s going really well,” she said. “There’s still a lot to learn and a lot of experience to gain. What I’ve been enjoying is the number of race days and also the variety.
“If one race doesn’t go to plan or I’m not as good on a cobbled section or a gravel section or whatever, that’s fine.
“There’s either a similar race in a few weeks’ time or a totally different race in a few weeks’ time and both are equally motivating, either a chance to rectify it or a chance to do something totally different.”
On Wednesday, Barker finished third in the British time trial championships as Lizzie Holden took the title ahead of Anna Morris.
It was an encouraging enough result for Barker, who was an impressive seventh at Gent-Wevelgem in March and made it to the finale of La Fleche Wallonne with the lead group in April before taking 16th.
The Giro Donne is next on the agenda, assuming the Italian race goes ahead amid problems for the organisers, and Barker is hoping to earn selection for the Tour de France Femmes which takes place at the end of July.
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She has not been ignoring the track – in February she collected Madison and team pursuit gold at the European Championships – but Barker said she feels more like a road rider these days.
“My loyalties lie with Uno-X in a situation where there is a conflict of programmes, and the track team know I’m working around it,” she said.
“In that sense I’m more of a road rider and track fits around that. I’m enjoying this approach to it and I can take the experience I get from the road and put it into the track.
“I think it makes me a better track rider than I would have been had I just continued with what I was doing with full focus on the track.”
On this day 2013: Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announces retirement
Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling 11 years ago, admitting: “I know it is the right decision.”
The 37-year-old Scot had been contemplating continuing until the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but revealed he was quitting the sport at a press conference in Edinburgh on April 18, 2013.
Hoy was Britain’s most decorated Olympian after his haul of two gold medals at London 2012 saw him surpass rower Sir Steve Redgrave’s record of five, although he was overtaken by former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny in 2021.
In explaining his decision, Hoy said: “I think in sport at the highest level you’re dealing in such small margins and you can tell when you’re good but not good enough.
“It was very emotional coming in there (to the press conference) and I was trying not to watch the video montage with the sad music.
“I don’t want it to be a sad moment.
“I want to celebrate it and be happy because I know it is the right decision.
“It’s a decision that I didn’t take lightly and I thought about it very hard.”
As well as six Olympic titles, Hoy’s 13-year career featured 11 world titles and two Commonwealth crowns.
Hoy’s final race was the Olympic Keirin final on August 7, 2012 – on the final day of the London 2012 track programme.
Following retirement, Hoy pursued his passion for motorsport, including competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while he has also written children’s books.
In February 2024, the 48-year-old announced he was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Paul extends rich form with double gold; Browne, Campbell also among T&T's medals at PanAm Track Cycling Champs
Trinidad and Tobago’s ace cyclist Nicholas Paul continued his rich early season form as he wrapped up another double gold medal-winning outing at the just-concluded Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Los Angeles, California.
Paul’s medals were won in his customary events, the men's Keirin and Sprint, and followed his fairly successful outing at the UCI Championships in Hong Kong where he recovered from a two-cycle collision in the Keirin to win the Sprint.
The 23-year-old again expressed gratitude for the continued support as he represents the twin island republic with much gusto.
“It is always an honour to represent my country and the Pan American region. Thank you to everyone for all the love and continued support. The Journey continues and the next stop will be the Nations Cup in Milton, Canada. So, I just want to continue putting in the hard work and let it show in my performances,” Paul said.
In the Keirin, Paul topped Colombia’s Kevin Quintero, while another Trinidad and Tobago cyclist Kwesi Browne copped bronze.
However, it took a photo-finish to separate Paul and another Colombian Cristian Ortega for the Sprint crown. Paul bettered his South American rival in the first ride before edging ahead in the second ride on the line by millimeters to retain his title.
Meanwhile, Akil Campbell was also among the medals, as he won a bronze medal in the men's scratch race.
In other results at the meet, Alexi Ramirez finished eighth in the women's elimination race and in the women's scratch race, while Makaira Wallace and Phoebe Sandy placed 13th and 17th in the women's sprint qualification, respectively.
On this day in 2018: Scotland’s Katie Archibald wins Commonwealth Games gold
Scotland’s Katie Archibald added Commonwealth champion to her long list of accolades on this day in 2018.
Archibald, an Olympic, world and European champion in various disciplines, took gold in the women’s individual pursuit in Brisbane, having broken the Games record in a blistering qualifying session.
Her only previous Commonwealth medal was the bronze she won on home soil in the points race in Glasgow four years earlier.
Archibald, then aged 24, said before racing began gold was the only colour she wanted and swiftly delivered, covering the 3,000m distance in three minutes 26.088 seconds to beat Australian Rebecca Wiasak.
She had set the record at 3:24.119 in a qualifying session which saw three riders go under the previous record set by England’s Joanna Rowsell Shand in Glasgow.
“It means a lot, especially in the individual pursuit because it’s not an Olympic event,” said Archibald. “2014 always stands out as a big year for Joanna Rowsell to kind of echo, because she had the title and the Games record.
“You look at the success she carried from that point in her career. I’d be very proud.”
Fired up by his sister’s performance, Archibald’s brother John then added another medal to Scotland’s tally with silver in the men’s 4,000m individual pursuit as England’s Charlie Tanfield clinched gold.
“I watched her heat run and the pressure was on her,” said John Archibald.
“The Commonwealth Games record went and they all went better than her personal best so she had her back against the wall but she pulled out and delivered on the day and that got me going.”
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