Track queen Laura Trott is raring to go ahead of the first Revolution Series event of the season on Saturday as she bids to rack up UCI qualification points in front of the home crowds.
Kicking off in Manchester, each event of the 11th season of the Revolution Series will carry UCI Class One status – meaning World Championship qualification points are up for grabs in some of the elite events.
And the 21-year-old – who will return to the National Cycling Centre the following week for the first UCI Track World Cup event of the season – admits the new system makes her life much simpler.
“It’s just nice,” she said. “We’re going to have a home crowd – the Revs get such big crowds – and it’s going to be a really good event and will also have the bonus of getting UCI points.
“To be honest, it makes our life a bit easier. I’m doing four of the five Revolution Series events this season.
“It just makes it easier for me to get qualification points for the Worlds next year.
Revolution is going to be a really good event and will also have the bonus of getting UCI points
“It means I can focus on the road and the Commonwealth Games and get my qualification points at Revolution.”
Trott arrives fresh from bagging two gold medals at the European Championships in Apeldoorn last weekend – in the omnium and the team pursuit.
But she admitted preparation for Manchester – for what will be her Revolution Series debut –had been hampered by an injury suffered on the track in the Netherlands.
“I’ve not been doing too much this week,” she admitted. “I fell off in the Elimination Race, and I had a massive splinter in my leg, so the doctor had to cut it out for me.
“I had a few stitches, it was a massive splinter, but it was so weird though – I just got back on my bike and didn’t really think anything of it at the time.
“I just wanted to finished the race and I didn’t want to lose any points. And then after I was like ‘God, something is wrong with my leg!’
“It wasn’t until the doctor tried to pull the leg of my shorts up that I was like, ‘whoah, whoah, whoah, something’s really wrong!’ and I had a massive splinter so he just had to cut it out there and then. A bit of local anaesthetic, then boom!
“I had the stitches on day one of the Omnium, and then I rode day two and just got through it, and hoped for the best.”
We all get on really well, it’s just good because we are all genuinely good friends
Double Olympic champion Trott will compete for Wiggle-Honda at Revolution, alongside fellow team pursuit gold medalists, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell, and world junior time trial champion, Elinor Barker.
They will be up against Scotland’s Katie Archibald (City of Edinburgh)– the newest addition to the team pursuit squad – and Trott claims the spirit between the five of them is high.
“We all get on really well, which obviously goes a long way, it’s just good because we are all genuinely friends,” she said.
“When you’re on the front in the team pursuit line, all I’m ever thinking is ‘I just want to do the best I can and then get back on, and then the next person will do the best they can’.
“Obviously it helps because you want to do the best for your mates.
“Katie Archibald’s come in and she just stepped in as if she’s been there the whole time. It’s just great that we’ve got people who can step in and ride as well as she did.”
And the new-look squad, competing in the new four women over four kilometres format, returned from Apeldoorn after twice smashing their own world record.
But Trott, who also broke the record alongside her Wiggle-Honda team mates at the National Championships, admitted it is not quite as prestigious a title yet with some notable international teams yet to compete over the distance.
It is amazing, but at the minute it’s more like the ‘world’s best time’ than a world record
“It is amazing but obviously now, because it’s four women, four km, it’s not the world record we were breaking at the 2012 Olympics or the Worlds [Track World Championships] in Melbourne,” she said. “It’s a completely new world record.
“So I guess it’s quite easy to beat at the minute because Australia have never even done one and Canada have never done one.
“At the minute it’s more like the ‘world’s best time’ than a world record, I think that’s the way we’d see it.
“It was great though, because the line-ups were completely different and we did two different rides.
“Joanna Rowsell was in the first ride and then she got replaced by Dani King in the second one, so we’ve obviously got the riders.”
