Elinor Barker interview: 'Am I a dark horse? I really don't know. I could win or finish 38th'

Elinor Barker speaks to Tom Cary for The Telegraph
Elinor Barker is one of British cycling's brightest prospects at the moment Credit: Paul Cousans for the Telegraph

Elinor Barker is clearly a woman in a hurry. An Olympic gold medal, a world points race title, an MBE, studying for an Open University degree, learning sign language and buying a house might constitute a pretty reasonable lifetime's CV, but Barker has managed to cram all that - and more - into the last 12 months.

And she is not finished yet: on Tuesday, the 23-year-old from Cardiff takes to the streets of Bergen in Norway for a tilt at the world time trial crown. Barker is not the sort of person who likes to look back, but even she sounds surprised by how much she has crammed in. 

“It’s funny actually,” she says, “when people were doing all those ‘One year ago’ Olympic throwback tweets and saying ‘I can’t believe it’s been a year’, I was thinking: ‘I can’t believe it’s only been a year.’ I feel like I’m living quite a different life to what I was then. It sort of feels like something I maybe watched on TV, a bit detached from my life, you know?”

Barker flies under the radar a little bit in terms of British sporting names, although quite why she does is difficult to fathom. Maybe it is because her Olympic success came in the women's team pursuit, where Laura Kenny's celebrity inevitably overshadowed her team-mates. Whatever the reason, she is fully deserving of recognition in her own right.

Elinor Barker at Rio 2016
Barker (second from right) celebrates team pursuit gold at Rio 2016 Credit: Julian Simmonds/Daily Telegraph

Hugely talented and already wildly successful despite her tender age – Barker has three world and three European titles to go with her Olympic gold – she also happens to be one of the more engaging and bubbly riders on the British squad.

When we meet at the appropriately-named Takk coffee shop, a Scandi-hipster hangout in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, a couple of weeks before the worlds, Barker is still laughing about an awkward incident she has just had at a local TT. “Massive faux pas of the weekend: turning up to a TT on my own with a back-zip skinsuit,” Barker wrote on Instagram afterwards. “Getting a stranger to help me into it was a bit like the awkward hug at the end of Naked Attraction.”

Barker, it turns out, is a fan of the Channel 4 show, a sort of Blind Date conducted in the buff (“It’s incredible! Awful. But incredible.”) as she is of various other forms of popular entertainment. We spend about 20 minutes discussing the ending to the latest season of Game of Thrones. She is incredulous that George North – the Wales rugby player and boyfriend of ex-track team mate Becky James – put out a spoiler on Twitter before the final episode. “He’s got like half a million followers!” she says, joking that it was a sackable offence. “Becky needs to bin him. I don’t care if they’ve got houses and dogs together…”

Elinor Barker in Telegraph photoshoot
Barker has had a varied year on and off the bike Credit: Paul Cousans for the Telegraph

It’s not all low-brow. Admirably for an athlete who might be expected to rest up when she is not racing or training or hitting the gym, Barker has a clear thirst for knowledge and self-improvement. She recently took up an ambassadorial role for the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, hence the sign language lessons - “I’ve only had three lessons so far so I’m not that good yet but hopefully eventually I’ll be able to have a proper conversation" – and is continuing with her open university degree.

“I’ve got absolutely no idea what I want to do after cycling which is why I chose to do the open degree, choose the modules and hopefully find something which I find interesting and can picture myself having a career in," she says.

"I get funding from UK Sport – like an education grant – so I thought it would be stupid not to do it. It would be such a waste not to.”

Barker also travels when she can. Having just re-signed for World Tour team Wiggle High5 for 2018 - from current team Matrix Pro Cycling - she is looking forward to ticking a number of countries off her “bucket list” next season, before returning to the track full time to concentrate on Tokyo 2020. Between Barker, the ever-improving Katie Archibald and the returning Kenny, the competition for the Madison and omnium spots could be sensational, and good news for GB's pursuit team.

Whether Barker's naturally inquisitive mind and desire to conquer new peaks will help her to challenge for a medal in Bergen on Tuesday, time will tell. A former Maindy Flyer – the Cardiff club that also churned out Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe, Owain Doull and countless others – Barker was a junior world time trial champion in Limburg in 2012, so the pedigree is certainly there.

Elinor Barker in Telegraph photoshoot
The new first lady of British cycling? Credit: Paul Cousans for the Telegraph

But having focused almost exclusively on the track for the last few years, she admits she has no real frame of reference. “I think realistically I’m looking for a good result in the time trial rather than the win,” she says. “I’ll be looking for podiums in the future but at the moment it’s all about getting experience. This is really my first year of giving road and time trial a go in a very a long time. And it has been really fun. Hopefully I’ll get another go in another four years, then I’ll be more experienced and even better prepared.”

A conservative target, perhaps, but Barker has hinted more than once at her form this season and could represent something of a dark horse on Tuesday. She punctured when going well in the TT at the nationals in June (where a bold solo attack almost won her the road race before she was reeled in by Lizzie Deignan in the final kilometres). And she arrives in Norway in decent nick, having just won two stages and the overall in the Rás na mBan, in Ireland (“A relatively small race. A good hit out but I’m no closer to knowing how I’ll do against the world’s best in Norway.”)

She has also clearly taken this project very seriously. Barker went in to Cyclefit in Manchester a number of times over the winter to work through a few potential positions and then went out to the Specialized HQ in California to test them with different bikes.

“I’ve done a lot of tweaking and now I’ve got a pretty stable position, which I’m happy with,” she says, adding of the 21.2km course: “It’s rolling to begin with. Then there’s a steep bit about halfway through [the Birkelundsbakken, a 1.5km climb which maxes out at 16%]. And then a really long, fast, descent before a technical finish through the town, over cobblestones.”

“I’d say the distance is perfect for me, the first half suits me pretty well and the second half not so well because there will be a lot of riders who are bigger than me and heavier than me [Barker is 5ft4in and under 60kgs].

“Am I a dark horse?” she laughs. “I really don’t know. I could win or I could finish 38th. But I’ll give it my best.”

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