Katie Archibald

The 20-year-old from Milngavie has enjoyed a meteoric assent of the sport's global stage, going from an under-the-radar Highland grass track rider to the reigning world and European team pursuit champion in a few short years.

Selling mattresses over the phone for her family's business was swapped for a place on British Cycling's Olympic Academy programme in Manchester last November. A little over a week from now she will represent Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games with Archibald expected to be one of the busiest athletes among the home contingent over the 11 days of action.

She will contest the 3000-metre individual pursuit, points and scratch races on the track at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, as well as the time trial and road race through the streets of Glasgow. All in it will give her five medal chances.

Archibald is under no illusions about how physically and mentally demanding that packed programme of events will be but she is up for the challenge. "It means I get to experience the whole Games," she says. "I will be racing on the very last day so there will be no wild parties in the Athletes' Village. I'm glad because it's an opportunity to test myself in all the different events.

"The two I'm targeting are the individual pursuit and points race. The individual pursuit is controllable. I basically prepare myself as best as possible and then see how everyone else does. The points race is a bit more complicated and tactics orientated. There's a lot more to it than simply pushing the pedals fast. That sort of excites and terrifies me at the same time, but I'm hoping to have the good legs and head on the day."

Archibald's ambitions do not end there. "The track is priority and what I'm training specifically for but the road time trial is one I'm eager to impress in," she says. "As for medal hopes? I realise that the best in the world will be there. I feel positive about putting out a good time."

The fact that she trains in Manchester has allowed Archibald to get a measure of some of her main rivals, not least the Olympic champions Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King, who will ride for England, and her fellow world champion Elinor Barker of Wales.

"Training with the GB squad . . . it's the home nations that seem like the top dogs and biggest stars on the track," says Archibald. "The Commonwealth nations are the strongest for pursuiting when you look at the world championships, so that's quite an interesting one. It is going to be really clustered at the top of the individual pursuit.

"You have Joanna Rowsell, who is world champion, while Laura Trott has put out similar pbs. Elinor Barker is the most prominent Welsh rider. Then you combine that with all the Canadians, Australians and the Kiwi team."

Having forged a close bond with her GB team-mates, joining the Team Scotland camp in recent days has required some adjustment. "I live with Elinor [Barker] so that is going to be the strangest part: not having porridge together in the morning," she says.

"Danni Khan, my other flatmate, is on the English squad for the sprinters but that is obviously a lot easier as we aren't going to be in direct competition. It's not Danni Khan who is going to kick me off a podium."

Relations among the home nations riders, she insists, remain amicable. "We're dealing with it pretty well at the moment," she says. "No one is getting tense or thinking that someone else is going to steal their ideas. It's hard to judge what it will be like when we are in that Games village with separate coaches, houses, parts of the velodrome and training times. At the end of the day we are all keen for the home nations to have success and that will be prevalent over the rivalry."

Archibald, who recently added a silver in the 2014 British National Time Trial Championships to her growing palmares, has progressed greatly since her early days of self-described "kamikaze moves", having garnered a raft of world-class experience. She hopes it will stand her in good stead in Glasgow.

"This will be a home Games and special for the Scottish riders," she says. "There is the pressure that comes with it but I think it's the support that will give us the edge. People talk about that as if it's a fictional thing with the home crowd but it does make a big difference, especially in the timed events when it's just you against the clock. You are trying to psyche yourself up to get an effort out and, if you have the crowd support, that really helps."

Archibald does not seem overly fazed by the intense scrutiny which competing on home soil will bring, although that should not be mistaken for complacency. "Someone said to me recently, 'Oh, it's probably a good thing that you are underdog and no one has heard of you', then I speak to the Scottish press and I don't get that feeling at all," she says, laughing.

"If I don't believe in myself or think I'm capable of achieving all of these ambitions then it would a weak stance to take. I'm going to embrace it and give it everything."