Elinor Barker: I never felt bullied by British Cycling bosses

British Cycling continues to be in the mire but for Elinor Barker it remains business as usual.

On Wednesday, British Cycling bosses will sit down Barker, her fellow riders and staff to finally lay bare the outcome of an independent review into an alleged culture of bullying at the governing body. The report, in a redacted form, is expected to be released to the public in April.

For Barker, her focus has less been on the past and more on preparing for a return to global competition in this weekend’s World Cup in Los Angeles.

But from social media alone, she admits the headlines from the past months have not made for great reading. “It comes up on Twitter if anything happens and you’re like ‘what’s that?’ Most of what I find out is on Twitter or in the newspapers.”

Immaterial of the outcome of the review led by GB Rowing chair Annamarie Phelps, the 22-year-old paints the picture of an already improved set-up under Andy Harrison, brought in to head up the riding side of things after Shane Sutton’s resignation last April. A separate investigation was launched after Sutton was accused of bullying and sexism by Jess Varnish although he denied the allegations and only one of nine charges against him was upheld.

“I like the way Andy Harrison runs things,” she said. “I feel comfortable if I ever had a problem that I could go to him and have it sorted out. I genuinely feel I could go to him on anything, which is a nice place to be in.

“Personally I’m happy, I like the guy, he’s a good leader to have and him and Iain Dyer [British Cycling’s head coach] work well together. No work place is perfect and you’ll always have friction with people but it’s good now.”

The now suggests Barker may have had past problems but that is not the case.

“My experience has always been pretty good,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to dismiss other people’s feelings or experiences but I wouldn’t say I ever felt bullied by British Cycling as a whole. I certainly never felt bullied and, from my side, I disagree with the idea of a culture of bullying.”

Barker argues that, to some degree, she was in her own bubble of British Cycling in the team pursuit set-up with Paul Manning, a set-up in which she says “we were pretty much left to it,” an approach that resulted in Barker winning Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier this month, she had a first reunion with her fellow gold riders with dinner at Katie Archibald’s flat with a newly pregnant Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell-Shand, and a chance to reminisce on the past. But this season, that quartet have gone their separate ways, Barker focusing on the bunch races on the track.

In Los Angeles, she will compete in the madison with Eleanor Dickinson and in the scratch race, but is not ashamed to admit she is “pretty far off my Rio form”.

“The Olympic seems so long ago,” she says. “There’s so many things I forgot about, and sometimes it feels sort of like something I made up! I’m really glad I kept racing and it’s refreshing to do something different to team pursuit.”

Tokyo 2020 and the team pursuit remains the long-term goal but Barker has also looked to the example of Lizzie Deignan (née Armitstead), a previous world champion on the track who has achieved the feat on the road.

“To say I’m aiming to be like Lizzie is slightly shooting for the stars but to emulate here in any way would be incredible,” says Barker.

“It’s amazing that she’s done that thing of having such a good road career it’s made people forget her on the track. People don’t know she won on the track, she could have retired from the track and been seen to have successful career. But she obviously had much more in her. A rider like that’s inspiring.”

Elinor Barker helped raise money for the Evening Standard’s Young and Homeless Helpline Christmas appeal by cycling with a reader following a charity auction.