THERE is, admits, Lusia Steele an added pressure about being the only Scot in the British team at this week’s UCI Junior Track World Championships.
The 14-strong British contingent is the next generation of riders who are hoping to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald et al and while the transition from junior athlete to senior is often far from smooth, these championships will provide a chance to gauge just where this batch of young riders are in global terms.
Steele has already shown considerable promise. The 18-year-old from Renfrewshire won a brace of British Junior titles at last month’s national championships, claiming first place in both the 500m time trial and the individual sprint.
It was the perfect way to warm-up for the World Junior Championships, which begin tomorrow in Aigle, Switzerland, and Steele, who will make her GB debut, admits she could not be in better shape for what will be the biggest competition of her career to date.
“It was good to win those titles - I felt really strong and I got personal bests so it’s good to be going into the Worlds with quite a bit of confidence having done that,” she said.
Getting PBs was especially nice because I know I’m going faster that I ever have. That’s a great feeling.
“So I hopefully can get my 500 even faster for the Worlds and in terms of my 200, I got a PB but it was a really messy effort so it’s nice to think that coming into the Worlds, I just need to tidy up the technical side of things because I know the speed is there. So I’m aiming to nail the technical stuff and hopefully it’ll all come together.”
And as the only Scottish representative in Switzerland, Steele admits that gives her an added incentive to do well.
“Being the only Scot in the team, it does put a little bit of pressure on. But more than anything, I’m just excited to see how I can do,” the teenager said.
“I don’t know quite what to expect - this is going to be new and really different for me so my goal is to go as fast as I can. But also, my target is to learn as much as possible so going forward, I can keep improving.
“It’s going to be my first time pulling on GB kit so I just want to make the most of it. It’s a great chance for me and having only raced for Scotland before, it’s nice to know I’m taking the next step up.”
Steele began her cycling career a decade ago at Johnstone Jets and has progressed steadily through the ranks, picking up over a dozen Scottish titles on her way. And having now moved to the next level, she is keen to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Archibald who has picked up world and Olympic titles in recent years. Steele, who has spent the past few weeks in Manchester finalising her preparations for the World Junior Championships, is too canny though to think that scaling those heady heights are a given despite being involved in the most successful cycling set-up on the planet.
“The people at British Cycling have so much knowledge so to be able to go to Manchester and benefit from that is really helpful,” she said.
“You obviously want to follow in the footsteps of the riders there but just being in the British system doesn’t guarantee anything. But it’s really nice knowing that this it’s the best set-up in cycling and we’re really good at what we do so it’s great to be a part of it.
“It’s definitely my goal to go full-time at some point, I’d love to have that chance. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I just take it one thing at a time and see how things go. That’s how I came into this year, just taking it one step at a time and not looking too far ahead and that approach has worked really well for me so I’m just going to keep doing that.”
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