KATIE ARCHIBALD was part of the Great Britain team that cruised through the women’s team pursuit qualifying in impressive fashion at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome last night.

The Brits are reigning Olympic champions and are heavy favourites for gold at these European Championships and the quartet of Archibald, Laura Kenny, Elionor Barker and Eleanor Dickinson certainly lived up to that billing, qualifying in the fastest time of the night in 4 minutes 19.330 seconds, over two seconds faster than the second-placed qualifiers, Italy.

Archibald was hugely satisfied with the performance and admitted it was nice to get the first ride under their belt and successfully completed. “It was good,” the 24-year-old from Milngavie said. “It was nice to get started, plus in that ride, we felt in control which was good. Hopefully we can carry this form into the next round.”

Archibald and her GB teammates are now just two rides away from the gold medal and have all the pressure on their shoulders, which the Scot admits that can be tougher to deal with than being the underdog.“From an internal reflection leading into and event, it’s a totally different type of nervous game,” she said. “I’m more dealing with expectation than opportunity and often it feels like a threat of failure when you come off the back of success. But hopefully we can carry it off.”

Katie Archibald was part of the Great Britain team that cruised through the women’s team pursuit qualifying in impressive fashion at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome last night.

The Brits are reigning Olympic champions and are heavy favourites for gold at these European Championships and the quartet of Archibald, Laura Kenny, Elinor Barker and Eleanor Dickinson certainly lived up to that billing last night, qualifying in the fastest time of the evening in 4 minutes 19.330 seconds, over two seconds faster than the second-placed qualifiers, Italy.

Archibald, who was the lone Scot in the team, was hugely satisfied with the performance and admitted it was nice to get the first ride under their belt and successfully completed.

“It was good,” the 24-year-old from Milngavie said.

“We’ve put ourselves in the gold medal ride so we’ve got a good fight to come.

“It was nice to get started, plus in that ride, we felt in control which was good. You look at some of the other teams and they’ve had their ride fall apart. Hopefully we can carry this form into the next round.”

The Scot knows this Glasgow track like the back of her hand and she admits that when medals can be decided by the finest of margins, that could make all the difference.

"The track only opened two days before racing and as much as a velodrome is a velodrome, some of the other riders haven’t had much practice on this track," Archibald said.

"Whereas the likes of me and Neah (Evans, the other Scot in the track endurance team), we know it well and when you’re right on the edge of things, it becomes a bit more important."

Archibald and her GB teammates are now just two rides away from the gold medal, with both the semi-finals and the final taking place today. The quartet have all the pressure on their shoulders and the Scot admits that can be tougher to deal with than being the underdog.

“From an internal reflection leading into and event, it’s a totally different type of nervous game,” she said.

“I’m more dealing with expectation rather than opportunity and quite often it feels like a threat of failure when you come off the back of success. But hopefully we can carry it off.”