Cycling star Daisy Taylor targeting home World Championships

By James Reid, Sportsbeat

Strathaven cycling star Daisy Taylor is hoping to make the cut to compete in front of a home crowd at this summer’s World Championships.

Taylor, 16, joined the Great Britain mountain biking team earlier this year and is now hoping to qualify for the UCI Cycling World Championships in August, hosted in Glasgow and across Scotland.

Scotland’s largest city will play host to the track competition at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, while Taylor’s discipline of mountain bike cross-country will take place in Glentress Forest.

Despite her youthful age, Taylor is hoping she has done enough to make her World Championship debut and insists the pressure of friends and family watching on will not add any extra expectation.

“Qualifying is based off results this year, and I am quietly optimistic,” said Taylor, who has been selected to be part of Aldi’s Rising Stars programme, an initiative with SportsAid that provides talented young athletes with financial support, recognition and personal development opportunities. “Hopefully it is not too much pressure having family there, because normally they are not with me.

“I am just starting the next step into international competition. I have always done local club stuff, but I got onto the GB team this year and it has been progressing quite quickly recently.

“I work with a coach but we try to keep it quite relaxed. It’s the same with racing - we get there and it’s about trying to stay relaxed because that’s when I perform best.

“I did well last year but it wasn’t expected. It’s a good team to be on and I have had a lot of opportunities with it. I am the youngest so it is good to learn from people who are older, and everyone gets on.

“It doesn’t feel like more pressure; it’s a good team so nobody is pressuring you. It’s my first year, so I am just getting used to it all.”

Each athlete on the Rising Stars programme, which was launched with SportsAid last year, receives funding to help towards costs such as travel, accommodation, equipment and nutrition, with Aldi also delivering workshop sessions on a range of topics to help nurture athletes for their sporting endeavours and beyond.

This includes top tips on healthy eating and performance nutrition, restful sleep, managing mental wellbeing, social media training and working with the media.

In addition, the talented young athletes, who have been nominated to SportsAid by the governing bodies of their respective sports, play a key role in the promotion of the supermarket’s ‘Get Set to Eat Fresh’ programme, which aims to educate children on the importance of a healthy diet.

To date this partnership has reached over 2.2 million young people, with a target to educate an extra one million children by the end of 2024.

Taylor’s ambitions to make the World Championships must be balanced with her academic exploits, with the 16-year-old about to commence study for her Highers.

Competing across the UK and world comes at great expense too, but Taylor is grateful for the financial support she receives from both Aldi and SportsAid.

She added: “The funding makes a huge difference; the cost of travelling and bikes, equipment and kit lands on my parents but the funding helps so much.

“Going abroad, the courses are more technical, so you really need the top bikes and to have spares to take with you.

“Nutritionally, it also makes a huge difference - when I am abroad you have to really think about what you are eating because I have to make my own meals then.

“I have got a lot better at fuelling before and after a race, and it has made such difference.”

Aldi is the Official Supermarket Partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB and have partnered with Team GB since 2015, ParalympicsGB since 2022 and will be supporting them through to Paris 2024