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We e k l y c olu m n
Katie Archibald
Olympic and world champion Katie Archibald got into cycling
after winning handicap races on a Highland Games grass track“All are in contention for an
Olympic spot. Can you imagine
what our training sessions are
like? It should be cheating to
have training partners this good”
ast week I overheard Ellie Dickinson explaining that
her family fi nd it odd to hear her so called because
they call her Eleanor — Ell to her dad — which made
me wonder how much of your identity is attached to your
name and how I’ll never experience this multi-naming. With an
already abbreviated birth certifi cate name (Katie) and a failed
past of getting people to call me Kate, I will probably never
know the answer to whether this means you are a different
person to different people, as refl ected by what they call you.
So, yes, last week Eleanor Dickinson rode the omnium at the
Milton Track World Cup, Canada. I can’t tell you how it went
because although I’ve said ‘last week’ I’m writing this ahead
of time so I can submit it before I also compete, in the points
race. Hopefully the answer is ‘fantastically well’ and you’ll be
reading about it a few pages hence, along with news of our
brilliant Madison which we rode/will be riding together!
Milton is the third World Cup of the season and our omnium
rider has changed for each. The fi rst was ridden by Elinor
Barker (whom we, incidentally, call ‘El’) and the second by
myself. Emily Kay and Emily Nelson (‘Kay’ and ‘Nelson’) each
rode the omnium at World Cups last season and, in case you
had forgotten, the double Olympic and world champion in
the event is Laura Kenny. WAIT — that’s not even it. There’s
also Neah Evans to be added to this bragging list as she’s
consistently one of the nation’s best bunch racers, though is yet
to have been selected as omnium rider for a major competition.
All of which hopefully demonstrates the depth of talent we
have on our track squad. Not just because all have proven to
be competitive on the international stage, but also because all
are in genuine contention for that Olympic omnium spot. Can
you imagine what our training sessions are like? It should be
considered cheating to have training partners this good.Domestic teams hail end of
‘ridiculous’ disc brake ban
BC to change regulations for 2018
Paul Knott
LT-Condor team
manager John
Herety was one of
several fi gures across the
domestic racing scene pleased
to see British Cycling lift
its ban on disc brakes in
domestic races last month.
Herety said: “We can use
them in international races
anyway, but we were in this
ridiculous situation where we
had Wouter Wippert arriving
in the UK with a bike to ride
the Nocturne and being
stopped from racing. America
and Australia have already
done it, so why not us?”
JLT-Condor won’t be riding
disc brakes themselves at
the start of the 2018 season,
although this was a personal
choice rather than a decision
based on time restrictions.
The announcement came too
late for Bike Channel-Canyon,
however, which had already
ordered its bikes
for next season.
Even so, sprinter
Chris Opie can’t
wait for the
opportunity to
race disc brakes in
the future.
“I would love
nothing more
than to ride down
a hill knowing
I could stop when
I wanted to stop,”
said Opie. There are other
benefi ts to using disc brakes,
he added: “Today I’ve got
28mm tyres on with rim
brakes and there’s literally no
clearance, whereas if you had
discs you could have 30 or
32mm tyres, which is ideal on
the UK’s slippery roads.”
Safety fears over disc
brakes have frequently been
raised, with a crash at Paris-
Roubaix in 2016 resulting
in the UCI suspending a
previous trial. This has since
been lifted and Marcel Kittel
became the fi rst rider to win
a Tour de France stage on
disc brakes this season.
Opie himself considers
the potential safety risks to
be relatively minor: “There
are so many dangers when it
comes to training, racing or
sprint fi nishes. A disc rotor is
really insignifi cant in terms of
everything else.”
Herety played down the
dangers of different braking
speeds in the
peloton: “There
are already
plenty of idiots
that don’t put
the right brake
blocks in for
carbon wheels
and some brakes
are more effi cient
than others, so
we already have
two braking
speeds as it is.”CW asked it readers ‘Will the
decision to make disc brakes
legal in domestic races next
year affect your decision to
enter certain events?’YES
17%NO
83%
871 votes12 | December 7, 2017 | Cycling Weekly