IT may still be a distant glimmer on the horizon, but for Katie Archibald the dream of reaching the Olympic Games is one that looms large.
The 20-year-old from Milngavie will be hoping to edge closer to fulfilling that ambition when she competes at the 2015 Track World Cycling Championships which begin in Paris on Wednesday.
Archibald is part of a five-strong British women's endurance squad alongside Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott.
Since the women's team pursuit was introduced as a world championship event in 2008, Britain has won six out of a possible seven titles. The only blip on their record was finishing second to Australia in 2010.
The current contingent will be aiming to make it a fifth successive gold and Archibald admits that having made her world debut in Cali a year ago, things feel very different this time around.
"Last year there was less pressure because I knew my place as the new guy in the team," she says. "I guess I do feel it a lot more this time to hold on to that winning streak. We will be going in there to win -- it would be against nature to want anything else - and will give it our best shot."
Recent years have seen the British women's team pursuit squad in constant evolution. Dani King, who took Olympic gold alongside Rowsell and Trott, is on a break from the track to concentrate on road racing. Barker was recruited to the side in 2012, with Archibald joining a year later and Horne last autumn.
Archibald is no longer the new guy. The reigning world and double European champion struck upon this realisation recently as she pedalled around the Manchester velodrome that is home to British Cycling and her training base.
"Having Ciara come into the squad made me realise I wasn't the newbie anymore and I had to switch roles," says Archibald. "I guess it kind of reflects the dominance of Great Britain as a nation in that we are producing world-class teams. It's not just one cluster of top girls in this generation that keep winning gold. The faces do change."
The current quintet share a strong camaraderie. "The impression I get from Jo and Laura, who have been in the team a lot longer and seen it go through different evolutions, is we are the tightest knit in the last five years or so," she says. "You hear sports teams saying: 'We all get on so well, that's what makes it work' and you think that they are either being cheesy or faking it.
"I reckon there has to be some correlation because it does help with being open in training. You get to the crux of problems really quickly. No one is shy or embarrassed to speak up. We all see each other so often, especially Elinor and I who share a house. We train together and run in the same social circles. It's all consuming: your pastime, hobby, life, job, everything. It wouldn't work if we didn't get on."
While a united front in the team event, the individual pursuit could produce an epic battle among the Brits.
"Jo has qualified for an individual pursuit place as world champion and I qualify as European champion, but we still get two additional GB slots," says Archibald. "I'm not sure if we all will be put in, but potentially four of us could ride. That would be cool. I'm hoping it will happen."
When I first interviewed Archibald in early 2013 before she burst on to the international scene, the Scot was reluctant to be drawn on Olympic aspirations. "That's the kind of stuff you aren't meant to admit, so that people don't turn round in two years' time and say: 'Oh, I thought you were meant to be going to the Olympics'?" she said.
With an ever-growing glittering palmares, she is now more forthcoming. "We're on this step-by-step checklist to get to Rio," she says. "Every race we do you are always thinking about selection. Although it is 18 months away, it's a constant mindset."
It would be easy to get overawed but Archibald, who won bronze in the points race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, prefers to view the journey in bite-sized goals. "It's comforting that way because it can be quite daunting constantly looking at this big Olympic challenge and peak," she says. "It keeps you sane and helps you sleep a bit better."
Whip smart with a dry sense of humour and left-field outlook on life, Archibald is a one-off. Her hair has been dyed every colour of the rainbow and is now "blue with two-inch long roots". It never stays one shade for long and Archibald vows to turn it "Cruella De Vil-style" black and white when she returns from Paris.
She turns 21 next month and is planning a typically eccentric Archibald- esque celebration. "We are trying to find out if we can hire inflatables, that's what I fancy for my 21st party," she says. "You know, like swimming pool inflatables?
"I remember being maybe six years old and going to an inflatables party. I'm on the lookout. Let me know if you hear of any cheap inflatables for hire."
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