Combined home worlds is a ‘phenomenal’ opportunity, says Elinor Barker
Barker has put her name forward for several different events across the road and track.
Elinor Barker is hoping to get two for the price of one when Scotland hosts the first ever combined cycling world championships in August.
An Olympic and five-time world champion on the track, Barker has been focusing more on the road this season and said the opportunity to compete in both disciplines on home turf this summer would be unique.
“Racing a home worlds doesn’t come around very often,” Barker told the PA news agency. “So to be able to race effectively two home worlds – with the track and the road – would be phenomenal.”
Racing everything she has entered is out of the question. This experimental new format for a world championships, due to be used every four years before an Olympics, involves plenty of schedule clashes and riders who favour more than one discipline must compromise.
“I’ve put myself up for more races than is physically possible,” Barker said. “I guess the best-case scenario is to have to choose because there are clashes between some of the road and track events.
“I’ve put myself up for six races and if I get one or two, that will be fantastic and I’ll go all out for those. Just to be able to race would be a fantastic experience.”
Barker long planned to shift her focus more to the road after the Tokyo Olympics, signing a long-term contract with the Uno-X team, although the process was put back after she became pregnant. The 28-year-old welcomed son Nico last March.
“It’s going really well,” she said. “There’s still a lot to learn and a lot of experience to gain. What I’ve been enjoying is the number of race days and also the variety.
“If one race doesn’t go to plan or I’m not as good on a cobbled section or a gravel section or whatever, that’s fine.
“There’s either a similar race in a few weeks’ time or a totally different race in a few weeks’ time and both are equally motivating, either a chance to rectify it or a chance to do something totally different.”
On Wednesday, Barker finished third in the British time trial championships as Lizzie Holden took the title ahead of Anna Morris.
It was an encouraging enough result for Barker, who was an impressive seventh at Gent-Wevelgem in March and made it to the finale of La Fleche Wallonne with the lead group in April before taking 16th.
The Giro Donne is next on the agenda, assuming the Italian race goes ahead amid problems for the organisers, and Barker is hoping to earn selection for the Tour de France Femmes which takes place at the end of July.
“My loyalties lie with Uno-X in a situation where there is a conflict of programmes, and the track team know I’m working around it,” she said.
“In that sense I’m more of a road rider and track fits around that. I’m enjoying this approach to it and I can take the experience I get from the road and put it into the track.
“I think it makes me a better track rider than I would have been had I just continued with what I was doing with full focus on the track.”
