KATIE ARCHIBALD doesn’t want to sound too overjoyed about having a bit of downtime when her day job of riding a bike is “most people’s Sundays”.

But even her time off since returning from Tokyo has centred around cycling, the new Olympic gold and silver medallist spending time with kids at a Team GB event in Manchester and then yesterday pitching up in Glasgow to mark the two-year countdown to the 2023 cycling world championships.

As BMX enthusiasts whizzed around her on the Kelvingrove track, Archibald spoke enthusiastically about the return of a major multi-discipline event to her hometown having been part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 European Championships.

This will be the first time all of cycling’s world championships will be held in the one country at the same time – cycle ball, football on wheels, will be one of the disciplines – and there is an undoubted stirring of national pride as Archibald looks ahead to being a part of it, the event slap bang in the middle of what the 27 year-old describes as “the biggest four years of my career”.

“I’ve got a bit of time off from the normal job which is most people’s Sundays so I’m never allowed to say I’ve got a real job,” she said. It’s nine weeks until the world championships so I’m trying to not be too highly stressed about it or feeling too high pressure about it. 

“And then after that we’ve got the Commonwealth Games next year, the 2023 world championships here and then the Paris Olympics in 2024. 

“It’s really stacked and these are going to be the biggest four years of my career.”

On Glasgow 2023, she added: “The freestyle stuff is going to be at Kelvingrove and we’ll be back in the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome for the track cycling.

“I was there for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 European Championships and now we’ve got another massive, multi-disciplined event coming to Glasgow. It’s exciting as a competitor but also just knowing that Scotland can host an event like this and can be such a strong sporting nation.”

Archibald already had an Olympic medal from Rio in her pocket but now has three in total she can show off. 

And after a Games where there were precious few fans and no travelling support, the acclaim she has returned to after taking silver in the team pursuit and gold in the inaugural women’s madison feels even more special.

“I got the medals into a lot of small, sticky hands at the weekend. It was a really nice moment as we didn’t have British support out in Tokyo.

“We had some Japanese supporters where we were. But to come home and meet the people who’d been saying, “Oh we’ve been watching you over breakfast” was quite a moment. It made you realise it was real and that people had been at home backing us. That was very special.

“It’s really nice to have a thing that you can just put in someone’s hand. It never gets boring hearing a seven year-old saying, “it’s really heavy!”. That was really nice.” 

Her close relationship with Laura Kenny was key to that madison success when the duo left the field trailing in their wake to win gold by a proverbial street.

Kenny is now Britain’s most decorated female Olympian and Archibald is happy to have played a part in that success. 

“I don’t think any of us really like the attention but the Olympic medal is an accolade in itself. It’s a testament to the hard work, the support you’ve had and everything coming together. That’s a big deal to me. The extra pressure that comes around the attention…it’s nicer to avoid that. 

“It feels cruel to say that was all on Laura but she does take the brunt of that. It’s been such a task to compete in the madison together and to be nailed down on that team as we had been such an open squad for so long. So to buckle down over the last six months has been such a treat and to do it with Britain’s most successful female Olympian also speaks for itself. 

“I live underneath Laura’s house in Manchester. I’ll call it a studio apartment as apparently the optics sound really bad if I say I live in Laura’s basement. I have my own door! So we’re always together doing video analysis and stuff.”

While others missed all the razzmatazz that usually surrounds an Olympics, Archibald was happier to make the celebrations more personal and low-key.

“I really enjoy the racing but I’m not quite as good at the celebrating. And so there was a bit of pressure taken off that it wasn’t appropriate to be dancing with every other nation!

“I’ve had a nice mellow time since coming back which has been right down my street. I’ve been home for a curry and a chill out. 

“My curry of choice is a malaidar which is a creamy, spinachy thing. Me and my family have been having Sunday curries for the past 15 years so that’s our family Sunday roast. My mum cooks amazing meals but we do like to order in a curry.”