Britain's Katie Archibald is among the big-name athletes in action at the Track Champions League finale this weekend in London with a doubleheader at the 2012 Olympic velodrome on Friday and Saturday set to decide the overall series winners.
Archibald leads the women’s endurance competition after last weekend’s third round in Paris, at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, that will host the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Archibald, who speaks very openly about her own anxiety and self-doubt, felt the experience was “overwhelming” which perhaps led to her “losing her head” in the scratch race and doubting her own abilities before cleaning up a third elimination race victory from three in Paris.
“I was really excited [for Paris] and the rational version of myself thought it was such a good opportunity,” Archibald said ahead of the finale.
“I said so in countless interviews about how we can be really deliberate with our practice here and what an advantage is to have exposure to the Olympic track.
“Then when I got there, and I don’t know. Maybe it felt overwhelming or maybe I just didn't sleep enough, but I found it oddly stressful and it’s put a bit of a mental block in my mind.”
Ever modest, Archibald was still brilliant in Paris and has been throughout the 2023 league, dominating the Elimination Race in different situations and finishing highly in the Scratch Races despite not winning them.
She heads into the final two rounds of competition with a 12-point lead over Anita Yvonne Stenberg and has looked unbeatable in the Elimination.
The former multiple-time Olympic and World Champion appreciates the exposure to high-level racing provided at the Track Champions League, knowing she can make mistakes and use them going into preparation for Paris 2024.
“One of the most important parts is that stress exposure, and learning to manage the cognitive load that comes with this series, of being on press conferences every week and reflecting on your performances on a public stage rather than a private stage,” said Archibald.
“The race exposure is the most important part and trying to be grateful for the mistakes that you make knowing that that's something to learn from.”
This is the Champions League’s third season with Archibald ever-present. She won the overall women’s endurance crown in 2021 and backed that up with second in 2022.
The Track Champions League has filled a gap in the early winter track racing calendar by providing top-level competition with some of the best riders and live television coverage helping to pull the discipline back into view.
“You'll often hear us reference everything back to the Olympic Games because it's both the most important thing to us, but it also ends up being the most important thing to track cycling fans,” Archibald said.
“And this [the TCL] is meant to be the morsel that you get between those four years to have exposure at the very top level beyond your World Championships and European Championships, something that's elite and more regular.
“It's been a real honour to have the introduction of this event overlap with my career, and I'm sure other people feel the same way as that springboard into the more regular mainstream for track cycling.”
Archibald has two Olympic Gold Medals to her name from the Team Pursuit in Rio 2016 and the Madison with Laura Kenny in Tokyo 2020.
Both triumphs came from irregular approaches to the Olympic Games, with returning from a serious knee injury in 2015/16 meaning she only raced once prior to the Games, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 obviously ruining any chance of a normal preparation for Tokyo in 2021.
The Scot said she appreciated being blinkered into a certain goal through circumstance, with external influences forcing her to focus solely on the biggest targets.
A chance at a clear and “perfect” preparation is actually worrying her.
“I wouldn't have said an injury was ideal before the Rio Olympics. I wouldn't have said a global pandemic was ideal before the Tokyo Olympics. But in both instances, something really good has grown from it,” said Archibald.
“So in 2024, a clean run almost worries me a little bit because if you're given the full platter, how do you know what to choose? It's almost like the constriction can bring about innovation on occasion.
“But the good news is that I've got the reflections from 2016 and 2020 to say, well, this is what works so don't get carried away thinking now it can be perfect because maybe it doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be right.”
The final two rounds of the Track Champions League take place on Friday and Saturday evening, November 10 and 11, with Dylan Bibic (Canada) leading the men’s endurance, Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) leading the women’s sprint and Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) leading the men’s sprint competitions.
With 40 points available for all four current leaders throughout the weekend’s racing, a lot is still yet to be decided and consistency will be key if they are to hang onto their blue leader’s jerseys by the end of proceedings on Saturday.
Archibald knows all too well how important it is to perform on both Friday and Saturday, having lost the overall lead in 2022 on the penultimate day of competition which she was unable to bring back despite winning the last race.
"I lost my head a little bit in last week's scratch race, it was salvaged with a fine result, but sometimes that can still unsettle you if you've not followed through on what you've actually got an honest outline to do," Archibald said.
"So I've kind of given myself a talking to, to stick to processes when we can when we come in this weekend and not obsess over any one person."
