KATIE Archibald and Mark Stewart will head a five-strong Scottish contingent as the UEC Under-23 and Junior European Track Championships get under way in Athens, Greece, today.

Archibald, 21, from Milngavie finds herself in the unusual position of already being a reigning double elite European champion. The world team pursuit silver medallist is one of a trio of under-23 British women alongside Emily Kay and Emily Nelson.

Dundee-born Mark Stewart, 19, meanwhile, is part of a six-man under-23 endurance squad with Germain Burton, Matt Gibson, Jake Kelly, Chris Latham and Ollie Wood.

Making his Great Britain debut will be Jonathan Mitchell, 20, from Paisley who is set to begin his challenge in the under-23 men's kilo this evening. He will then contest the team and individual sprint events tomorrow and Thursday respectively.

Mitchell's inclusion in the team marks a prodigious rise for a rider who only took up the sport in earnest less than three years ago.

If there are any jangling nerves, Mitchell hides them well. "I'm looking forward to racing and competing against guys who have been world and European medallists," he says. "I do tend to find that the bigger the event, the better I do. I go well off pressure."

He showed his promise earlier this year when he caught Welsh sprint star Lewis Oliva napping and produced a blistering ride to progress to the semi-finals at the Revolution Series in Glasgow against reigning Olympic champion Jason Kenny.

Mitchell said at the time: "It's about trying to knock on that door - perhaps even bringing a bit of a bigger hammer. I'm still pretty new to this and tactics are something I need to improve on."

Having raced at youth level, Mitchell took a break from cycling and returned in late 2012 when the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow first opened. A win in the men's sprint at the 2013 BUCS Track Cycling Championships cemented the path he wanted to follow.

Mitchell had hoped to be part of Team Scotland for the 2014 Commonwealth Games but saw his ambitions thwarted when tendonitis struck both heels while on a training camp in Majorca only six weeks before the trials. He was off his bike for three months.

"That was a rubbish time but in the long run it has taught me a lesson," he says. "I wasn't keeping on top of the little things like stretching and now know what happens when you don't."

Despite that setback, Mitchell's progress has been faster than even he expected. "I came into this with no expectations," he says. "I was almost fumbling in the dark. I didn't have any set ambitions. My approach is to train as hard as I can and see what happens. I'm happy to see where it all goes."

Mitchell is joined in the under-23 men's sprint team by fellow Glasgow-based rider John Paul. A former junior world and double European champion, Paul, 22, has gone through a tumultuous couple of years after being dropped from the British Cycling Academy Programme in 2013.

It is his second call-up to the Great Britain team in the past 18 months having raced in the third round of the 2013/14 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series in Guadalajara, Mexico in January last year.

Also making his Great Britain debut is Jack Carlin, 18, from Paisley in the junior men's sprint events.