Laura Kenny insists the rivalry within the British team gives them an edge heading into the Track Cycling World Championships.
Kenny, Team GB’s most successful female athlete, hasn’t won World Championship gold since 2016 after taking time out to have son Albie with husband, and fellow cycling legend, Jason Kenny.
But she is confident both she and her team are in a strong position heading into the start of the championships, on February 27 in Poland, because of the internal competitiveness of the team.
She said: “I think the competition is the reason why British Cycling continues to be so successful.
“For example, there are six of us women going for the four team pursuit spots and I think that’s what makes us so good.
“The National Championships that were here (Manchester) a couple of weeks ago is like being at a World Championship. The speed of the people who are in it is the same as at a Europeans or a World Cup.”
The GB women come into the World Championships in sparkling form with multiple Madison wins at World Cup events as well as seeing four different riders finish in the top five in their omniums.
And with Tokyo 2020 just over a year away, Kenny is desperate to lay down a marker, particularly with the Madison being added to the Olympic programme in Japan.
“Everybody wants to do the Madison, it’s a lot of fun and goes at 100 miles an hour, you can’t switch off and you’re there trying to keep up,” she added.
“If we can medal across all the Olympic events, that would be a good standard and would be us moving forward.
“The World Cups went really well, Katie (Archibald) and I won all our omniums, Neah Evans and Elinor Barker were up there as well.
“We won all our Madisons, bar the Europeans, and that showed that we can put any team in and be successful.
“Some of the other nations may not have put in their best team, but if we could medal across the Olympic events then that’s a really good step forward towards next year and the Olympic Games.”
Kenny has that rare ability to increase her performance when under the most pressure and will once again arrive in Pruszkow with the eyes of the world locked on her.
However, the 26-year-old insists it doesn’t faze her.
“It’s something I really do look forward to,” she added.
“We’ve obviously got girls in the team that are less experienced and haven’t been to as many World Championships, but I think because we train together as a team all the time I guess they don’t really see me like that which is nice because I can just get on with it and be another teammate.
“I’m obviously there if people want to talk about the pressures but I personally don’t feel it from the outside world at all.” Sportsbeat 2019