Laura Trott: Defeat was devastating but we're back on course for Rio
Double Olympic champion tells Matt Westby about her insatiable will to win and rebuilding team pursuit confidence after shock loss
Tuesday 13 October 2015 11:23, UK
Laura Trott doesn’t mince words when looking back on the lowest point of her career so far. "It was devastating," she says. "Horrible."
Going into this February's World Championships in Paris, Britain's women's team pursuit squad were unbeaten in more than four years, had set all of the past nine world records and, along with Usain Bolt and Floyd Mayweather, were one of the most dominant forces in sport.
But then their dynasty came crashing down in a seismic defeat in the gold-medal final to a rampant Australia, who thrashed them by three seconds in a game-changing, world-record time of 4min 13sec.
"It was pretty frightening," Trott admits. "And their ride wasn't seamless either. They have obviously got stuff to improve on, which is also scary.
"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."
Time, however, has proved to be a healer for Trott and her team-mates, who have spent the spring and summer regrouping and revamping their training programme as they bid to bounce back, starting with the European Track Championships in Switzerland, which begin on Wednesday.
They have all rolled back their road-racing commitments in order to dedicate more time to the track and seek out new levels of perfection in even the most routine techniques, changeovers chief among them.
Paul Manning is back as their coach and marginal gains - the concept introduced to British Cycling by former performance director Sir Dave Brailsford - have returned to the agenda. As Trott chats in a quiet corner of the Manchester velodrome where they train, she is wearing a plastic bracelet that monitors her quality of sleep in order to maximise rest and recovery.
"As much as it's bad to say, I almost think that we needed it [the defeat]," she adds. "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.
"We have changed the dynamic of the team now, we all know where we are heading, we have all bought into the same training plan and I feel like that is what we needed to bring us together."
The only issue for Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne is that marginal gains are not what they need given that Australia's time in Paris was so much faster than anything Britain have ever ridden before.
Big leaps are required if they are to retain their Olympic title in Rio next summer, but Trott is confident they can be made.
"It was a phenomenal time [Australia's world record], but one that is achievable if we can get it right," she adds. "We have now got five girls who are going well and we can chop and change now, whereas before we were always just relying on four girls."
It is little surprise that Trott has confidence in victory given her remarkable will to win.
She was just 20 when she burst on to the scene at the London 2012 Olympics and swept aside the rest of the world aside to win gold medals in the team pursuit and omnium.
She now looks back on those heady days almost with envy but insists that, still only 23, the fearlessness of youth within her endures.
"In London I was young, I came from nowhere, nothing bothered me and nothing fazed me," she says. "I didn't want to think in that omnium in London that I wasn't going to win, which sounds nuts coming from a 20-year-old.
"I had won a world title in the omnium before, so it wasn't completely out of nowhere, but to the outside world, they would be like, 'Wow, she is a bit over-confident', but I just didn't think about it. I just got on with it.
"I sat in those chairs before the 500m [time trial, the last event of the omnium] and thought, 'I'm going to win'. That was just my attitude. And I've definitely still got it."
The European Track Championships take place in Grenchen from Wednesday, October 14, to Sunday, October 18.
