By Gareth James
Elinor Barker helped Britain clock the fastest time in team pursuit qualifying as she launched her bid for more European Track Championship gold in Bulgaria.
The Cardiff-born rider was part of a quartet that clocked 4:13.923 in Plovdiv with Neah Evans, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald.
The quartet will return to the track later today for the first round with the medals being decided on Thursday.
Barker already has six golds and two silvers from previous Europeans including four golds in the team pursuit where she also helped Britain win the Olympic title two years ago.
It’s fantastic to be back racing 👌 https://t.co/L7ABSq2QwK
— Neah Evans (@neahevans) November 11, 2020
The 26-year-old will try and help Britain retain the gold medal in Tokyo next summer and these Europeans could be one of their final events given the COVID-19 situation.
“Because we don’t really know what’s going to happen between now and Tokyo we’re almost treating this as if it’s the only race we might have because it might well be,” said Barker.
“We’re really hoping that it’s not, but it could be so we’re going to go out and give it our all but also try to learn as much as we possibly can from the experience because it might be the only race we get.”
Barker will also join forces with Kenny for the madison on Sunday where she also won gold in 2017.
She added: “I’m particularly excited for the madison because while we haven’t been able to race we have managed to change our training a little bit to replicate racing as much as we possibly can.
“We’ve had some really fun sessions in the last few weeks so I’m really looking forward to Sunday.”