The Euros are taking place on a concrete track in the Caribbean - it's going to be interesting!

Hello from the Caribbean! That might sound like a perfectly normal thing to say, except for the fact that I’m here for the European Track Championships. Bizarre, I know.

To be more precise, I’m in Guadeloupe, where the championships are being held from Thursday to Sunday. I’m no geography expert, but as far as my understanding goes, Guadeloupe belongs to France and, as such, it can be counted as European, so that’s why we’re here.

Not that I’m complaining. I love a bit of winter sun, so jetting off to the Caribbean is absolutely fine by me.

It’s a significant week because this is the first event that carries qualifying points for the 2016 Olympic Games, so the road to Rio effectively starts here.

It’s also going to be an interesting few days because of the track out here, which is unlike anything I’ve ever come across before.

To begin with, it has no roof and is fully open, and then there’s the fact it's 333m long (as opposed to the conventional 250m). Next, and this is the most interesting part, the track itself is made out of concrete, not wood, and finally, it’s tropical storm season over here, so there’s a good chance of rain while we’re racing. All in all, it’s going to be quite an experience.

Elinor has been worrying that if it rains, our white world champion skinsuits might become see-through, but I told her we’ll be too busy trying not to fall off.

The longer length of the track has had a big impact on our preparation. In team pursuit, setting target laps times is a central part of our planning of a race, but the fact that we have an extra 83m to cover each time around has thrown our usual calculations out of the window. Plus, we also have to remember that the 4km distance we cover is only 12 laps, and not the 16 we are used to, so we will have to be mindful of that.

The concrete surface is also a major thing to get our heads around. I’ve obviously ridden on rough surfaces in road cycling, but never before on the track. My personal feeling is that the team pursuit will actually feel more like a road team time trial.

The weather is another concern. Elinor Barker, who is one of my team-mates, has been worrying that if it rains, our white world champion skinsuits might become see-through, but I told her we’ll be too busy trying not to fall off in the wet to worry about how we look. I don’t even want to think what a crash on concrete would be like.

Plus, we have had to take into consideration the wind. You cannot use two disc wheels outdoors, so back at the velodrome in Manchester, we were training with one disc wheel and one spoked wheel, and we were also using standard bike helmets rather than aero helmets just to slow us down some more and get us used to what it will be like out here.

All that said, I’m really looking forward to the championships. I have to admit, I’m not on top form because I peaked for the Commonwealth Games in July and I’m planning to peak again for the world championships in February, and you can’t peak all the time, so you have to have periods where your form dips and I’m in one of those now.

It’s a friendly rivalry, but you always want to keep your spot on the team, so it’s also a very motivating rivalry.

We’ve got five girls in the team pursuit team – myself, Laura Trott, Elinor, Katie Archibald and Ciara Horne – and there will be three rides, so it gives us chance to try out some different things, get the qualification points and hopefully enjoy it along the way.

We’ve obviously been a very successful team in recent years but I don’t think it’s a given that we’re going to win this week. With the track, the wind and potentially the rain, it throws the event wide open.

At the worlds in Colombia earlier this year, the track was open there too and we ended up being run really close by the Canadians, so we know from that experience that we will have to be on our game.

With the team pursuit, there is also a massive amount of competition from within. We’ve got four places and five riders, so someone will miss out at some point. It’s a friendly rivalry, but you always want to keep your spot on the team, so it’s also a very motivating rivalry.

The face of the team has changed quite a lot recently, with the addition of Katie last year and now Ciara. It’s very different to when it was just myself, Laura and Dani King at the London Olympics.

Dani won’t be with us this season because she is going to focus on road racing instead for the next year. It will be strange not having her around after being her team-mate for so long, but you have to concentrate on the girls who are here and the job at hand.

As for Ciara, I’ve actually only been riding with her since this summer, but she is a big engine who can do big lap-and-a-half turns later in the race, so she will bring a lot of power to the squad. She’s really friendly too, so she has fitted in well and has been a really good addition to the group.

I’ll also be riding in the individual pursuit later in the week, so I’m really excited about getting to wear my world champion’s rainbow jersey again.

Hopefully it will be a good – and safe – championships and I’ll have some successes to tell you about in my next blog.