Olympic prospect Dani King got her track season off to the perfect start with a gold medal at the European Championships.
Brit on track ahead of Olympics
Olympic prospect Dani King got her track season off to the perfect start with a gold medal in the team pursuit at the European Championships in Apeldoorn.
The 20-year-old rider returned to Holland - the scene of her World Championship victory in the same event last March - in a bid to add a European gold to her collection.
King was joined in the team pursuit line-up by fellow rainbow jersey-holder Laura Trott, while Joanna Rowsell was brought in which demonstrated the team's current strength in depth.
The signs were there early on as the trio took the fastest qualification time - a second quicker than their World Championship-winning run - to set up a shoot-out in the final against Germany.
Despite the pressure of the final the Great Britain team produced a polished performance to take a commanding victory and the first of seven gold medals during the championships.
Winning ways
After the race King, who rides for Horizon Fitness RT during the road season, paid tribute to her team-mates and a versatility that has singled out the Great British women as one of the most clinical teams in the world.
She said: "It was a great race. We came in with high expectations after winning the World Championships earlier this year. We just wanted to go out and give the best performance we could. Me, Laura and Jo have never ridden as a trio before in a race situation, so it was really good to see what we could do as a team.
"The three of us are all really fast riders. We can ride as either man one, man two or man three which gives us great versatility. We can do a great job in each position so we had to sort out which was the best line-up on the day with how we were going. It seemed to work really nicely and we produced a great result.
"The Germans are a very strong team but I think that the likes of Australia, New Zealand and America will be our toughest rivals in London next year."
Golden generation
With a winning mentality instilled in the athletes from the junior ranks, King believes that the prospect of a home Olympic Games will bring out the best out of the current crop of riders next August.
She added: "I think Great Britain as a whole have always got high expectations of getting that gold medal. We are all training so hard and we all want it really badly. I think come the Olympics we will have that drive and the determination even more.
"It's going to be tough but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be in that team pursuit line-up for the Olympics. I think we will be a tough team to beat.
"It's impossible to top what the team did in Beijing because of the number of events available in 2012. I think we just have to focus on the events we have got on the track and just produce the best performances we can. It's going well at the moment; preparations are on track and we have taken valuable qualification points at the Europeans.
"We will look to continue that going into the World Cups and then the World Championships in March next year in Melbourne. Then it's on to the Olympics and hopefully we can do what we did in Beijing and dominate as a team."
Track targets
Despite collecting a European gold there is little time for King to rest on her laurels as the races come thick and fast.
"My next trip is to Kazakhstan on Saturday for the World Cup event. Before that I'll have a week at home to rest up and get a bit of training in. I'm riding the omnium there so that will be a really good opportunity for me. There's no women's team pursuit squad so it will give me a good chance to focus on the omnium to see how I get on.
"Then after that it's the London World Cup hopefully, and the Worlds in Melbourne. Then it's the Olympics, so there aren't many opportunities to race between now and then but lots of training and hard work to put in to make sure I'm in that team."
To hear the full interview with Dani courtesy of Sky Sports News Radio you can listen here.
