Elinor Barker admits the changes to the women’s team pursuit will be noticeable at the British Cycling National Track Championships this week even if the outcome is starting to feel the same.
Barker will ride the team pursuit alongside Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King for Wiggle Honda in Manchester as the event moves up from three riders to four and from 3,000m to 4,000m.
Those changes, bringing it into line with the men’s team pursuit, were made immediately after this year’s World Championships in Minsk where Barker, Trott and King combined to win gold.
Barker came in for Rowsell, concentrating on the roads at the time, while a virus suffered by the same rider first allowed the 19-year-old to join Trot and King at November’s Manchester World Cup.
All four will now ride together for the first time and Barker, set for the 500m time trial at the National Track Championships in addition to the endurance events, believes it will feel different.
“It’ll be the first time we have ridden the 16-lap race so I think it will be different and will take a bit of getting used to,” Barker told British Cycling. “It’ll definitely seem like a very different event I think.
“However, it’s still team pursuit and still very much a similar event so I’m just going to go out and enjoy riding in the rainbow stripes for the very first time.
“I only came up to Manchester to start working with the others a few weeks ago but the team is full of Olympic and world champions so I can’t see it going too badly to be honest.
“The 500m isn’t my best event but I really enjoy it. Training has been going well; I have been doing quite a bit of motor pacing stuff on the track in Newport which is good preparation for the bunch races so hopefully they will also go pretty well.”
© Sportsbeat 2013