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Eleanor Dickinson takes confidence from European
Championships in to Junior Worlds |
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July 16th 2016 |
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Eleanor Dickinson all smiles after claiming bronze in the team
pursuit. Photo: Supplied |
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A busy early season on the road for Eleanor Dickinson included
finishing top 10 at the Junior Energiewacht Tour, winning a
stage of Omloop van Borsele and finishing 13th at The Women's
Tour of Yorkshire before claiming the British junior national
title in May.
The past two months have seen the 18 year old turn her
attention back to the track for the Junior European and World
Championships.
Dickinson's European Championships started strongly on Tuesday
with bronze in the team pursuit in a new personal best time.
With little more than time to change numbers she was back on
the track in the scratch race. Having claimed silver in 2015
her eyes were on gold but she would narrowly miss a medal.
Finishing fourth and further motivating her for the individual
pursuit on Wednesday.
The previous days disappointment in the scratch race didn't
stop Dickinson shaving a massive three seconds off her PB in
individual pursuit qualifying with a time of 2:26.914. With her catch and passing of
her opponent catching the eye of dual Olympic and seven time
elite World Champion Laura Trott.
Having qualified for the bronze ride Dickinson posted her
second fastest time ever but fell just short or bronze, picking up
another frustrating fourth. Despite the disappointment, the
personal best in the IP, an event that had let her down in the
past leaves her full of confidence ahead of the World
Championships next week.
Won the British junior road race title in May how did the race
play out for you?
The junior British road champs was a great race on a tough
course! It's always difficult when riding in with the seniors
because you then have to really track who's who!
A group formed off the front which included three of my team
mates, no juniors so I was cool to let that stick. I
knew I had to position myself well at the bottom of the climb
and not look back untill I crossed the line! And that's what I
did, started the bottom of the climb along side Sophie Wright
and Jess Roberts, I was in the middle of the three so it
wasn't ideal not having the option of the gutter but yeah I
put my head down and hit it as hard as I could from the
bottom!
Been the youth national champion before what does it mean
adding the junior title?
To win the junior title was a massive achievement for me,
there is some really great competition in the junior category
so I was over the moon to take the win.
Raced the U19 European Track Championships last year do you
think that experience helped you this year?
Yeah definitely! Every race is different and every track is
different but it helped me in that I know what to expect!
Claimed bronze in the team pursuit on the opening day a good
result for you and the team to start with?
We were chuffed with the TP result! It's our first big
international event together as a team and we worked
perfectly, which showed well in our result! A PB for us all so
we can't complain!
Had a quick turn around on day one and were back on the track
for the scratch race. After claiming silver last year you must
have had high hopes for a strong ride? Finished fourth just
outside of the medals how did the race go?
Pretty quick yeah, was pretty much get bike sorted, pin
another number on and get back on!! Pretty gutted! It's never
going to be nice to get a worse result than the year before,
especially fourth! No one wants to finish fourth...
The race was boring! Nothing happened, rolled round on the
blue then a big sprint! It was so tense around the track, very
sketchy.
I got hooked onto the Italians wheel because I knew she would
be the strongest, but we came from too far back and it was
quickly over! There's my mistake!
Set a new PB of 2:26.914 in IP qualifying taking three seconds
off your previous best of 2:29.920 happy with the time and how
you executed the race?
I was dead happy with a 2.26! Last year I would have laughed
if you'd have said I would get under 2.30 in an IP!! I knew
that IP was an event that let me down in the omnium so it's
something I have worked really hard towards and to see that
time on the board and get a second ride meant a lot especially
after a rubbish scratch!
Received a tweet from Laura Trott ahead of the IP final about
your catch of your opponent in qualifying what did that mean
to you?
It defiantly put a massive smile back on my face!! It was
really lovely to read especially before riding a final! It was
amazing to hear she thought my catch was perfect too!
Finishing fourth in the IP must have been disappointing being
so close to another medal but at the same time you finished
with the two fastest time you have ever ridden?
Yeah, it's a funny one. Sometimes your best just isn't enough!
I gave it everything but it wasn't enough.
I'm gutted with two fourths to say the least. It's a hard
place to finish twice!
With bronze in the team pursuit and 4th in the scratch and IP
can you take confidence from those results in to Worlds?
We work very well as a team and we all have confidence in each
other so for sure we will go out to worlds and try our best in
the TP and try and go quicker again.
I'm really excited to get stuck into my first omnium at the
worlds! I can't wait to go out there and see what I can do. I
know the consistency is there I just hope it's not fourth!!!
Busy first two days of European Championships but you have a
few days break now ahead of Worlds. With the two events in
quick succession how important is having a few extra days
between them to recover?
My first couple of days here have been pretty full on and the
legs were feeling it, yesterday I had a nice relaxing day with
a ride to Lake Garda with some of the girls. Today I will be
back on the track for a training session, but yeah for me now
it is all about resting up looking after myself to get the
best recovery so I can head to the worlds feeling recovered
and confident!
Racing the omnium at the World Championships what are your
goals for Worlds?
It will be my fist omnium at a major event! I've set some PB's
for the timed events coming into this trip so I'm really
looking to improve on them and get stuck in to the bunch
races! I need to be consistently up there.
Raced Road World Championships last year but this will be your
first track event with a full international field what do you
think the biggest challenge will be?
I think it will be a big challenge but I'm looking forward to
it. I think the most challenging will be coping with the
atmosphere associated with such a big event! |
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