Katie Archibald column

We’re pretty close to race day at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. My first race is the day after this is published. My biggest concern is that I’m having too much fun.

My second is that my neck is mad sore, but being a more grounded physical concern that one’s easier to get my head around (ha) so it isn’t stressing me — it’ll fix eventually. But the fun, how am I to stop having fun?

Our pre-games camp is in Sydney, where I am currently, and we’re staying in a hotel just a stone’s throw from the Sydney Olympic velodrome. ‘We’ is the Team Scotland track and road cyclists, a group disproportionately weighted with the kind of rider whose form is best when they’re happy. My form is best when the Form Gods allow it, though I’ve found spending rest days praying to them from a stationary position in my hotel room makes them favour me. It’s different strokes for different folks.

The ‘happy form’ group headed for a rest day trip into Sydney yesterday. Every rider came apart from Kyle Gordon and my brother, John, who couldn’t because it wasn’t a rest day for them. Having had the same religious upbringing as me, John knows what the Form Gods like. Why didn’t I stay with John instead of going into Sydney and having a wonderful time?

I’m writing this at 6am because I woke up in a guilty panic around five and couldn’t get back to sleep — half an hour until breakfast opens. I’m going to have porridge and then eggs, which the Gods will like but is far too small an offering to compensate for a day exploring Sydney and bopping around on Manly beach. I touched the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean. I took various handstand photos so they’d be the right way up when I get home to the UK. I had Ben and Jerry’s in an ice cream cone. I got hit in the face (twice) by a frisbee. I feel so happy. How will I possibly ride a bike fast now?