Katie Archibald ready to race again following ‘ironic comedown after success’

Katie Archibald will be looking for a reset when she races at the British Track National Championships for the first time in six years next week.

The two-time Olympic champion went through a turbulent 2024, ruled out of the Paris Games after a freak accident at home before bouncing back to win her sixth world title in October as part of Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit.

The 30-year-old admitted something felt different this winter and she took an extended break – at around five weeks the longest of her career – to think through her goals for both the short and long term.

“After the Paris Games that I didn’t attend I was pinning everything on the worlds, and it was the first time I experienced what’s kind of like this ironic comedown after success,” Archibald said.

“We went to the worlds and defended the team pursuit world title, you leave as world champions, and it was the first time in my career that something like that hadn’t acted as a springboard.”

Archibald mapped out goals which stretch as far as the 2028 LA Olympics but the nationals, which take place in Manchester from February 21-23, will be the first step. It will be the first time she has taken part since 2019.

“I really don’t know how this happened,” she said.

“You have a view of yourself and one day you wake up and look at the facts and you have to update that. But I really saw myself as someone that really loved riding the nationals.

“It’s my favourite thing to turn up to and it’s got this emotional attachment to it. As an amateur you can turn up at the nationals and beat the best and it’s nice to be part of that journey for other people or to defend your stature as somebody who has made it.

“The way things have conspired there’s always been something else to prioritise but I guess it’s a reflection of a good reset to finally be back. I guess I wanted to reconnect to what it was like before, when this would have been the main goal of my season.”

The 2025 calendar leaves plenty of space for Archibald to race in Manchester.

There is only one Nations Cup, in March in Turkey, but British Cycling has made the decision not to send a women’s endurance squad with priorities elsewhere.

Archibald’s big targets for the year are instead at October’s World Championships in Santiago, Chile, but she is already looking beyond that to next year.

“I’m clear that I want to go to the LA Games, but you can’t pull a foot over the bed and think every day about something that’s four years away,” she said.

“So the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026 is a really exciting thing in my season-planning for the next two years. It was in 2012 that the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome opened in Glasgow for the 2014 Games, and you can pinpoint easily a lot of the talent that has come out of that facility.

“It’s quite a nice rounding point for my career, from when I was trying to break into that 2014 team, to still feel quite connected to that naive rider that was there.

“I still have the same mentors from that time. I’m still friends with the riders I talked to then who have retired. It really gets put in your face when you’re back in the same venue to realise I’m now the elder statesperson. So that’s a big deal for me.”