An ever present in the Great Britain team pursuit squad for the last two years, Elinor Barker is prepared for a stiff test at this week’s Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
The 20-year-old, who first shot to prominence when she won the junior world time trial title in 2012, is one of five endurance women selected for the Championships alongside Katie Archibald, Ciara Horne, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott.
Great Britain will be bidding for their fifth straight world title and come into the World Championships, which begin on Wednesday, having picked up two wins in the 2014/2015 UCI Track Cycling World Cup.
But they are sure to face a number of challengers at the National Velodrome Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, most notably in the form of the Australian team who set a new national record of 4:20.999 in Melbourne last month.
Although Barker, who has never missed a World Championships or World Cup ride since her Great Britain debut in late 2012, is relishing the match up.
"The Aussies have just set their national record a week or so ago which is pretty quick so we're definitely expecting the gap to close between us and the other nations now,” Barker told British Cycling.
"We tend to push ourselves to the limit, which is why sometimes it gets a little bit ragged and it doesn't really look quite perfect.
"It's been quite a privilege actually to be in every single ride. I was kind of scared to acknowledge it because I thought maybe I'd jinx it a little bit.
"Ever since being a junior I've never actually sat out of a team pursuit so I'm terrified for the day it does actually happen.”
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