Dani King shifts focus to Olympic road race but relishes track return at Six Day

By Pippa Field/Sportsbeat

The contrast between the last 12 months and the prospects for the year ahead could not be starker for Olympic champion Dani King.

Team pursuit gold medallist back at London 2012, King’s world was thrown upside down last November when she suffered a life threatening training crash that left her with eight broken ribs, a punctured lung and a bruised liver.

The 24-year-old has already signalled her intention to spend 2015 riding on the road for Wiggle-Honda before returning to the track in time for Rio 2016.

With this in mind she focused her efforts on getting back into racing shape at the start of the year before spending a month back on the track in July.

It was at this point that her Olympic track dreams were shattered though as British Cycling advised her to concentrate on the Rio road race, and she was consequently left out of their track plans for Rio 2016.

As a result, King’s target is now on securing a place on the team for the Olympic road race, and earlier this month she re-signed to Wiggle-Honda for another 12 months.

Results are already looking promising for King and her team who missed out on a podium finish in the team time trial at the recent World Championships in Richmond.

Throw in getting engaged to long term partner and fellow cyclist Matt Rowe this week and King admits things are firmly looking up.

“It’s been really positive couple of weeks for me. I’m in a really good place at the minute and I’m looking forward to getting back out there and turn all my attentions to trying to make the team for next year,” she said.

“To be honest I’ve not yet put in a full season on the road so for next year I will be 100 per cent focused on that and knowing exactly what my goal is.

“I had some good results this year but that was without a full season of training so going at it 100 per cent next year, I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can do with Wiggle Honda.

“I was really pleased with being so close to the podium at the Worlds. If you had said that to us a week before the Championships, we would have taken that.

“We had not much preparation so it bodes well for the future, when we are going to be focusing on things a lot more.”

While a full season on the road lies in the way for King, she will however return briefly to the boards next month for Six Day London.

Featuring the world’s best riders, it promise to be a packed programme of events at Lee Valley VeloPark from October 18-23 and King admits she can’t wait to return to the scene of her London 2012 triumph.

“I am really looking forward to Six Day London, I think it will be a really exciting few days, especially with having women’s racing throughout the event too,” she added.

“With being a track cyclist I had heard about six day racing but I had never heard of the UK having a Six Day competition.

“I thought it would be a nice event to go and watch. And then when I heard it was going to be held in London and that there was women’s racing too I got in touch to see if I could ride.

“Every time I go to the Olympic velodrome it gives me Goosebumps. It’s a big factor in why I wanted to compete in Six Day London, as it’s just such a special place.”

Six Day London is at Lee Valley VeloPark between 18-23 Oct - tickets now on sale at www.sixday.com. Come and see the world's best track cyclists in action and be part of an electric party atmosphere at London's Olympic Velodrome.