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Laura says ‘Queen Mum’ Jess has helped her target such a quick return to cycling glory

LAURA KENNY has turned to athletics legend Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill to help her quest for sporting greatness from here to maternity.

Four-time Olympic champion Kenny returns to the saddle in next week’s UCI track cycling world championships in Holland just six months after giving birth to baby son Albie.

To help balance the demands of parentcraft and stopwatch, Kenny revealed she has been mentored by Ennis-Hill (right).

Britain’s queen mother of track and field won her third heptathlon world title in Beijing three years ago, 13 months after the arrival of son Reggie.

Kenny will be going for her eighth rainbow jersey in Apeldoorn, where her husband and six-times Olympic sprint champion Jason also returns to the Great Britain squad.

As Mr and Mrs Cycling held court at the national velodrome in Manchester, Mirror Sport asked Kenny if she had followed any sporting mums for inspiration.

It transpired she has been consulting the best in the business. The 25-year-old golden girl said: “Serena Williams has been in the news about coming back straight away after childbirth, but Jess has mentored me through it – she has been on the other end of a phone for me. “It’s great to have that kind of support because my body has been through something I’ve never experienced before and you never know how you are going to feel until you go through it. “Jess has been there, done it and worn the medals. “She has been quite open about all the questions I could ask her and that’s been really helpful. “I had met her briefly at a few adidas appearances, but it wasn’t until I was six months pregnant that we got together and I started to pick her brain. “A friend who knows both of us put me in touch and we went across to meet up with her in Sheffield – I didn’t just turn up on her doorstep or send a text message out of the blue. “She told me to take it slowly, to forget about how I was feeling before and not to rush straight back to those numbers. The programme we follow is powerbased and everything we do is recorded, so initially I had to forget that as I was chasing numbers from before the Rio Olympics.

“I’m not back to that level yet, so it was good to hear her say you will get those feelings and it will be hard initially.

“But once you settle in, it all comes back pretty quick.”

Kenny will be eligible to race in the team pursuit in Apeldoorn, where British Cycling have set their team a baseline target of at least three medals.

But she admitted: “Just because I have been selected to go doesn’t mean I’m going to get a ride.

“My form came back much quicker than I was expecting.

“I got back on the bike, just for a turbo session, six weeks after giving birth, mainly to see how my body was going to respond, and initially it seemed like quite a slow process.

“But after that, it came back pretty quick and it was more a confidence issue, one stepping stone after another.”