KATIE Archibald and Mark Stewart will head a five-strong Scottish contingent as the UEC Under-23 and Junior European Track Championships get under way in Athens, Greece, today.
Archibald, 21, from Milngavie finds herself in the unusual position of already being a reigning double elite European champion. The world team pursuit silver medallist is one of a trio of under-23 British women alongside Emily Kay and Emily Nelson.
Dundee-born Mark Stewart, 19, meanwhile, is part of a six-man under-23 endurance squad with Germain Burton, Matt Gibson, Jake Kelly, Chris Latham and Ollie Wood.
Making his Great Britain debut will be Jonathan Mitchell, 20, from Paisley who is set to begin his challenge in the under-23 men's kilo this evening. He will then contest the team and individual sprint events tomorrow and Thursday respectively.
Mitchell's inclusion in the team marks a prodigious rise for a rider who only took up the sport in earnest less than three years ago.
If there are any jangling nerves, Mitchell hides them well. "I'm looking forward to racing and competing against guys who have been world and European medallists," he says. "I do tend to find that the bigger the event, the better I do. I go well off pressure."
He showed his promise earlier this year when he caught Welsh sprint star Lewis Oliva napping and produced a blistering ride to progress to the semi-finals at the Revolution Series in Glasgow against reigning Olympic champion Jason Kenny.
Mitchell said at the time: "It's about trying to knock on that door - perhaps even bringing a bit of a bigger hammer. I'm still pretty new to this and tactics are something I need to improve on."
Having raced at youth level, Mitchell took a break from cycling and returned in late 2012 when the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow first opened. A win in the men's sprint at the 2013 BUCS Track Cycling Championships cemented the path he wanted to follow.
Mitchell had hoped to be part of Team Scotland for the 2014 Commonwealth Games but saw his ambitions thwarted when tendonitis struck both heels while on a training camp in Majorca only six weeks before the trials. He was off his bike for three months.
"That was a rubbish time but in the long run it has taught me a lesson," he says. "I wasn't keeping on top of the little things like stretching and now know what happens when you don't."
Despite that setback, Mitchell's progress has been faster than even he expected. "I came into this with no expectations," he says. "I was almost fumbling in the dark. I didn't have any set ambitions. My approach is to train as hard as I can and see what happens. I'm happy to see where it all goes."
Mitchell is joined in the under-23 men's sprint team by fellow Glasgow-based rider John Paul. A former junior world and double European champion, Paul, 22, has gone through a tumultuous couple of years after being dropped from the British Cycling Academy Programme in 2013.
It is his second call-up to the Great Britain team in the past 18 months having raced in the third round of the 2013/14 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series in Guadalajara, Mexico in January last year.
Also making his Great Britain debut is Jack Carlin, 18, from Paisley in the junior men's sprint events.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article