JOHN ARCHIBALD HAVING THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS After an amazing year, Scot returns to Manchester with new goals, hears Stewart Fisher
JOHN Archibald was still working in the family bed and mattress shop when he turned up at last year’s national track championships in Manchester. What he achieved persuaded him to start turning his attention to the other family business: winning bike races.
While sister Katie has been cutting a swathe through this event since moving from swimming in her teenage years – she was triumphant in three separate events last year alone – there is something special about the one title her big brother has contributed to the mantelpiece.
Rocking up there at the age of 27, he surprised himself as much as his fellow competitors when he left with the honours in the points race as well as a bronze in his preferred individual pursuit.
It was the first stirrings of a year that by anyone’s standards was remarkable. Before 2018 was over, Archibald had won a silver medal for Scotland in the individual pursuit in the Commonwealth Games and signed for maverick Derby-based cycling team HUUB Wattbike. With them, he added a remarkable gold medal at the UCI World Cup event in London last month, beating an official GB team, the three-time Olympic champions in this event, into third in the process.
“How I did last year definitely was a surprise to me,” admits Archibald. “I came from a swimming background, so when I took up cycling, I was looking at the British National Championships as the pinnacle of everything I would ever get to. You couldn’t have predicted it at all. Literally that was the first British champs I had done, the way it came off was perfect.
“Things just seemed to be getting better and better and you wondered where it would all finish up. But it all just carried on from there, with me having the Commonwealth Games, the Europeans, the Track World Cup, Wattbike, everything just keeps on going.
“It was special to win a national title but I have refocused my goals this year, I am a lot more specific on what I am doing. I’m not doing the points race this year. I am just doing the individual pursuit and the team pursuit. It is an exciting prospect with the national championships coming up and the potential for worlds selection at the end of February.”
Perhaps Archibald’s most remarkable ride of all, though, took place just before Christmas on a well-nigh deserted velodrome in Gretschen, Switzerland. Competing in the 4km individual pursuit, Archibald clocked 4 minutes 10.177 seconds, which wasn’t just faster than anything ever achieved by the likes of Chris Boardman or Bradley Wiggins. It was the second-fastest by any rider in history.
When you consider the only rider to better it, his sometimes USA teammate Ashton Lambie, did so in Aguascalientes, Mexico, at an altitude of 1888m, that makes it the fastest ever at sea level. And, when you combine it with his Commonwealth Gamessilver winning time, Archibald now has two of the top 10 fastest times over this historic distance.
“It hasn’t been recognised as a sealevel world record, as there is only the world record, and my time which is second-fastest,” says Archibald. “But it is a nice accolade to have. That was another surprise – to take three seconds off your best time, at this level you can’t be expecting that. I knew it was a quick time but I didn’t know how quick it was until Jonny [Wale, his team-mate] shouted ‘world record’. When you cross the line there is a bit of disbelief but you are seeing the splits coming up and you know the potential is there for that kind of speed.
“Going for the record is in my mind, but that is not the kind of thing that drives me. If someone said to me ‘do you want the world record or do you want to win the world championships in the slowest time ever?’ I would take the world championships win. Everyone takes these records with a pinch of salt, thinking he must have had good conditions that day or there must have been something else. At a world championships everyone races on the same day under the same conditions on the same velodrome. That is when you know for sure that you are the best.”
There is no doubting any more his potential, but Archibald’s situation remains complex. While he and his HUUB team-mate are the pre-trial favourites to get the nod for the two individual pursuit spots for Britain at the World Track Championships in Pruszkow, Poland, at the end of February, that event no longer has a place on the Olympic roster.
Still on the outside looking in when it comes to the British Cycling hierarchy, that only really leaves the team pursuit, where the challenge for individual pursuit riders is to develop more raw power, rather than endurance. But the attitude of Archibald and his team is refreshing.
“There is no defined pathway [to joining the British Cycling programme],” he said. “We have been doing really well in World Cups and they have definitely taken notice of us. It is just where the discussion goes from there. Dan [Bigham] has been in touch with their sports director and he has been in touch with their trials process. It is very up in the air. If you don’t ask you don’t get.
“I know you need to make the most of it [the opportunity] while it is there but it is not the be all and end all. I am still in the enjoyment phase. We are still kind of amateur sports people. We are not doing it for a salary, or for anything other than our own satisfaction.”
Things seemed to get better and better and you wondered where it would finish up