It may have been difficult to swallow at the time, but Laura Trott believes that the monumental setback suffered by Great Britain’s women’s pursuit team at the UCI Track World Championships earlier this year was a necessary evil in inspiring them to kick on and reach new heights.
In Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Britain’s team, as good as invincible for so many years, were bowled over in the final by Australia. They had set each of the past nine world records, but saw a huge three seconds shaved off the fastest time they had ever ridden.
"As much as it's bad to say, I almost think that we needed it [the defeat]," says Trott in an interview with Sky Sports. "We had gone into the events thinking we were going to win everything. Not taking anything for granted – I don't think we did that – but you set your stall so high that you never think you are going to lose.
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"I have lost the omnium before, so I knew how I was going to feel, but to see some of the girls and the way they were upset about it was horrible and it wasn't a nice place to be. It was quite hard to take and accept."
Since then the core team, made up of Trott, Katie Archibald, Joanna Rowsell, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne, have been working together on the track during the off-season with reinvigorated focus.
Their first proper test comes this week at the European Track Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, which will be a chance to get themselves back into the flow of competition and assess where they really are up to. After that, things will start to get more serious with the World Cup events over the winter, followed by the 2016 Worlds, which will be a key marker on the road to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
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