Joanna Rowsell blog: Signing for a new team will be a big boost to my Olympic hopes in Rio

I was really pleased to announce yesterday that I’ve signed for a new team for the next two seasons.

I’m going to be leaving Wiggle Honda, where I've spent two really enjoyable years, and moving to the newly formed British squad Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International.

They were set up earlier this year by Dame Sarah Storey and her husband, Barney, and joining them will be a massive help to my preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which somehow are now only two years away.

It might turn a few heads that I've dropped down from a top-tier UCI team in Wiggle Honda to a team that does most of its racing in the UK, but in my opinion, women’s cycling in the UK has grown massively in the past couple of years and I think it’s the place to be.

One of the biggest factors behind the move, though, is that I will have an influence on my own race programme. It's difficult to get the balance right when you’re a track rider who also has responsibilities on the road. You need the gym work and the track-specific training, but you also need road racing to give you the endurance side.

It was never a problem with Wiggle Honda, but joining a British-based team and having an extra say in my schedule in the run-up to Rio will give me a lot of peace of mind.

Another reason I was keen to join is that Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International are also really big on time-trialling, which is one of my favourite disciplines. I would really like to win the national time trial title back and being in a team where that can be a key focus is a real bonus.

This season marks the start of the qualification process for the Olympic Games – effectively the first steps on the road to hopefully retaining our team pursuit title.

This is all next year, though. Right now my mind is on the 2014/15 track season, which starts with the national championships later this month and then comes to an end after the world championships in February.

This season marks the start of the qualification process for the Olympic Games – effectively the first steps on the road to hopefully retaining our team pursuit title in Rio.

We’ve currently got a squad of six girls going for the four spots in the team pursuit and I know as well as everybody else how difficult it's going to be to get into that squad, so the next few months will be vitally important.

One of that six is now my new team-mate, Katie Archibald, who has been racing for Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International already this year.

She is absolutely hilarious as a person. She’s really, really good to have around the team, a great personality and really good fun.

As a rider, she is so impressive. Everyone always says she has come from nowhere, but in truth, she has worked really hard to get to where she is now. Behind the scenes, an immense amount of effort has got her to this point.

She joined the team pursuit team about this time last year and through the winter she amazed everyone by how much she improved, even week to week.

She then made the team pursuit squad at the world championships, which we won, and then she got a medal in the points race at the Commonwealth Games.

She is good at everything: road, time trials, track, team pursuit, bunch races – she’s got the lot, and she’s only 20 years old.

Katie is a frightening talent and she’s got a massive future ahead of her. I’m just relieved that I’m going to be on her team on both the road and track from now on and won’t have to race against her.