Eleanor Dickinson looking to learn at first elite Track World Championships
	April 9th 2017         Eleanor Dickinson on the podium after winning British Junior IP title. Photo: Andy Whitehouse           Eleanor Dickinson will line up in Hong Kong this week for the 2017 UCI Track World Championships looking to gain experience racing against the best in the world and learn from her teammates including Olympic Champions Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald. 18-year-old Dickinson knows what it takes to represent Great Britain at the World Championships, having done so as a junior both on the road and the track but Hong Kong will be her first as an elite rider. Having only stepped up from juniors last November. Her maiden elite World Championship selection comes after a strong start track season, that started at the Glasgow World Cup. Where in front of a home crowd she claimed gold in the team pursuit. A result she never expected in her first elite race. At the start of a new Olympic cycle Dickinson is one of a number of up and coming riders to watch on the road to the Tokyo Olympic Games. Your first event in the elite category was the Glasgow World Cup in November where you won gold in the team pursuit. Couldn't ask for a better way to step up from juniors? How did it feel standing on the podium at a World Cup in front of a home crowd? Winning gold in my first ever World Cup and first elite race was an amazing feeling especially with a home crowd, it's not often my family can travel around to watch me, so to have them there made it even more special. An unexpected result for me to say the least! Also raced the finishing seventh in a very credible time of 3:39.887. Must have been happy with the time for your first 3km IP? How did you find the 3km distance compared to 2km? Yeah, having the chance to ride the IP, was mainly for me to experience an individual event and my first shot at 3k, so I didn't really have any expectations of a time. I was really happy with that time though, it was faster than the schedule my coach walked trackside by quite a way so a positive. In regards to the distance, it feels like a completely different event really, it's ridden a lot differently that's my opinion anyway. The effort has to be a lot more controlled than the 2k so for me it's just working on that for the future to try and improve my time. Raced the new omnium format at the Revolution Champions League and Track Challenge Grenchen what do you think of the change? One that suits you? I think the new format will take a bit of getting used too, personally I do miss the timed events that have been taken out and the tempo race is a tricky one to get your head around. Raced the Madison with Elinor Barker at the LA World Cup how did you find it? I think it's pretty obvious El and I where disappointed with our Madison result in LA, however the Madison is new to women's racing at this level and we learnt and will continue to learn so much from every Madison race. In LA we got off to a good start each of us winning the first two sprints, but after that we made a few mistakes and we missed out. It happens! You have had a busy but successful track season how have you found the step up from juniors? Has it been a challenging or something you have enjoyed? I think for me the biggest part of stepping up from junior has been focusing on track specifically and putting my early road racing season that I'm used to on hold, I think it's easier to juggle between the two as a junior because there isn't as many major track events early on anyhow. I've found the training so much more specific, which I like. I have really enjoyed the track season and I have learnt so much already. What does it mean to be selected in the GB team for Track Worlds in your first season out of juniors? Selection for my first elite world championships means an awful lot to me. I'm in such a lucky place in that I am able to start my learning process now, amongst a team of incredible bike riders (Olympic champions) and coaches. What are your goals for Track World and what do you think the biggest challenges will be? My goals are definitely to take as much learning as I can away from this experience, putting all of the training and work into my rides and to go as fast as we can as a team. Obviously I'm going to be super nervous that's always a challenge. Maybe I will know more on this question when worlds are over haha! Looking ahead what are your goals for the rest of 2017? A year about learning and development? After worlds I will be heading back to Belgium to join the rest of the squad and to start my road season. I will be more sure on my goals for the road once I've got racing and can see where my legs are. I'm looking forward to getting out on the road, and getting stuck into some racing, as always learning as much as I can on my way.