Katie Archibald 'benefited from Lily Williams psyching herself out in the elimination race' at Track Champions League

Updated 29/10/2023 at 08:14 GMT

After a disappointing result in the night's opening race at the UCI Track Champions League in Berlin, Katie Archibald did not expect to still be leading the women's endurance competition at the end of the night. That she is, she says, is down to Lily Williams going into the second race - the elimination - "a little too confident" which in turn opened the door for Archibald.

'Went in with wrong focus' – Archibald reflects on disappointment in scratch race

Katie Archibald bounced back from a disappointing sixth place finish in the scratch race at the UCI Track Champions League to win the elimination and increase her lead in the women's endurance standings.

Afterwards, Archibald attributed the result to going in "with the wrong focus."

She added: "Last week I tried to predict how the race would go, based on who I saw, and tried to react to that. This week I went in with one thing that I wanted to achieve - I won’t say what it was but I didn’t achieve it. I don’t think I had enough avenues and then I got fixated on this one task."

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The avenues that were blocked might have to do with the race winner, and Archibald's closest rival in the endurance competition, Lily Williams riding away, while the rest of the field left it up to the British rider to chase her down.

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Archibald says that after she "tried to reset for the elimination, not overthink it, and just get to the finish line."

She did better than that, riding the perfect race, making it to the final two, before cruising to a stylish showcase victory over second place Maggiel Coles-Lyster.

While some might complain about how hard the event, which is sometimes referred to as The Devil, can be, Archibald says she "found the final five eliminations of that race a lot of fun." That was partly due to the Berlin arena itself which is "a nice track to move around on, because there’s so much downhill when you’re riding up high. You get into a really nice flow and to have that become a nice outcome is very satisfying."

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It helped that she seemed to take the pressure off herself. Before the final event of the evening, Williams was leading by what might have seemed like an insurmountable eight point lead, meaning the American only needed to finish within a couple of places of Archibald to top the table.

"I wasn’t expecting to be in the leader’s jersey," Archibald says. "I benefited from Lily Williams psyching herself out in the elimination race. She said she had really good legs this week and went in a little too confident."