Commonwealth Games 2018: Katie Archibald - 'I want gold medals'

Archibald won points race bronze behind Laura Trott (now Kenny) in 2014, but is hoping for gold on the Gold Coast

Katie Archibald has won Olympic, World and European titles as part of Great Britain's medal-laden women's team pursuit squad.

The Scot, 24, is also a four-time European individual pursuit champion.

But as she prepares for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Australia, she is relishing the chance to show her individual talent on a wider stage.

"It's probably the biggest chance I'll have to put my name in world standard individual pursuit," she said.

"I've made mistakes and had bad timing with World Championships in the past few years with individual pursuit, and this is a chance to right that.

"We're not doing the team pursuit, so I've got plenty of time to tune into that."

Katie Archibald, right, will be competing against fellow Team GB members Emily Nelson, left, and Elinor Barker, second left

Archibald, one of 15 cyclists heading to the Gold Coast as part of Team Scotland, will compete in five events - the individual pursuit, the scratch race, the points race, the road time trial and the road race.

"I want gold medals, but so does everyone else," she told BBC Scotland. "That's realistic. The silly thing is that I wanted that last time [at Glasgow 2014].

"You always want that, you always want to be the best, that's why you turn up on a start line. I definitely have a realistic hope of medalling in the track events; we'll see what happens."

Archibald, who was based in Bearsden in north-west Glasgow, moved to Manchester after winning bronze in the points race at the 2014 Games, joining the British elite performance squad.

Her career has gone from strength to strength since, winning 2016 Olympic gold in Rio as part of GB's women's pursuit team alongside Laura Trott [now Kenny], Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell, and world titles in 2017 - in the omnium - and earlier this month with Emily Nelson in the madison.

The Commonwealth Games differ from the Olympics in many ways, aside from the separation of British athletes into their home nations.

None of the track events at the forthcoming Games, from 4-15 April, feature in the Olympics.

"It's a different event for us because so much of the GB focus is on Olympic Games - that's what we fall asleep thinking about," Archibald said.

"So it changes that dynamic and it's a chance to celebrate being part of Team Scotland especially, so it's different and spectacular because of that."

This means Archibald will find herself going wheel to wheel with some of her British team-mates, many of whom who are close friends.

The likes of Nelson will be competing for England, while Barker is in the Wales squad.

"We'll our go our separate ways," Archibald added. "We won't be Team GB anymore, we're our home nations.

"It's a friendly rivalry and it isn't until you line up on race day that you realise we all want it. We wake up friends the next morning thinking, 'it's all ok'."