Lauren Bell is doing as good a job of remaining relaxed and stress-free as anyone could expect considering she’s currently in the midst of a ferocious battle for Olympic selection.
The 24-year-old from Forres in Moray has become a regular in GB’s track cycling sprint squad over the past few years but she’s far too canny to allow any hint of complacency to set in when it comes to selection for this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Bell’s mantra, as with almost every aspiring Olympian, is to focus on the process rather than the outcome and she admits to perpetually repeating this to herself.
But she’s also well aware that there’s precious few racing opportunities remaining before GB’s Olympic team will be finalised.
One of the Scot's final competitive appearances before plane tickets to Paris are handed out comes this weekend, at the British National Track Championships, which begin today at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
Bell will race the 500m TT, the keirin and the sprint, with the former being her most important ride of the next few days, particularly as, in her last outing at the Adelaide Track Nations Cup last month, her performance was below par.
And so while Bell is well aware there’s much less at stake at the national championships than is the case at international races in which she’s become so accustomed to riding, she’d still like to put in a good performance and, potentially, regain the national 500m and keirin titles she won in 2020.
“I’m looking forward to Nationals because it’s a really fun event and there’s not too much pressure,” Bell says.
“I messed up my lap in Australia – I mucked up my pedal so it wasn’t a physical issue, it was more of a technical one but it means my 500m at nationals is the one really important race I’ve got this weekend so I’d like to ride well in that.
“I just have to just remember that I’ve done the work and so we’ll see how I can do.”
As the major target of the year, the Olympic Games, draw closer, Bell continues to remind herself not to get too caught up in the stresses and strains that inevitably come with fighting for selection in what is arguably the most competitive cycling team in the world.
She’s made the mistake in previous years of worrying too much about results and she knows the pitfalls of allowing herself to slip into that mindset once again so the Moray native, who’s now based at British Cycling’s headquarters in Manchester, is doing everything she can to cling on to some resemblance of a “normal” life.
“I’m trying to put Olympic selection to the back of my mind and just think about the process,” she says.
“Just before I got onto the GB programme, I watched an interview with (five-time Olympic champion) Laura Kenny and she said the hardest part of being a rider in this country is getting selected for the GB team and I remember thinking that was a really strange thing to say.
“But now I’m in the system, I can see how that’s so accurate – we have so many talented female sprinters that it makes being selected for the Olympics so difficult.
“So I’m trying to stay focused on myself so that when it comes to selection, whatever the outcome, I’ll know that I did everything I could.
“Last season, I was so caught up in trying to do well that I wasn’t looking around and enjoying myself.
“But I’ve got a good group of friends outside of cycling and they’re very far away from what I do day-to-day so it gives me a real glimpse of “normal” life. That helps me a lot and makes sure I’m in a better headspace.”
That Bell is in this position of contemplating an Olympic appearance at all is remarkable in itself.
The Scot was only invited to join the GB programme in 2021 and since then, has won World bronze in 2022 followed by World and European silvers in 2023, all in the team sprint.
It’s been a remarkable rise for someone who only took up cycling as a 17-year-old after applying for a talent identification programme and she admits that she forces herself to remember just how far she’s come in such a short space of time in order to maintain an element of perspective on her career.
“One of the things I’m mindful of is that as good as it is being drawn into this mindset of wanting to do well, I’ve got to remember my personal journey. Me and my coach say I’m still a cycling baby so I need to take it step by step,” she says.
“Being in the British set-up is really good in some ways in that you have people pushing you on and loads of people you can go to advice but also, I have to remember that I haven’t been cycling for ages and so I shouldn't compare myself too much to others.
“If someone had told me a few years ago I’d be in this position, I’d have said no way so I remind myself to take all the positives from what I’ve done so far.”
Bell will not be the only Scot in the hunt for national titles over the next three days.
Two-time world champion, Neah Evans, will be defending her points title with her stiffest competition coming from, amongst others, her fellow Scots Jenny Holl and Kate Richardson while in the sprint events, Iona Moir and Kirsty Johnson will both be competitive.
In the para events, Neil Fachie and Fin Graham both have their sights set on adding further to their tallies of national titles however, two-time Olympic champion, Katie Archibald, is absent, as is world and Olympic medallist, Jack Carlin.
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