Great Britain will be among the contenders for gold in the women’s team pursuit at the Paris Olympics, but it will be hard not to think about the rider who is not there.Plans for these Games were flipped upside down six weeks ago when two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion Katie Archibald broke two bones in her leg and tore ligaments off the bone in a freak accident when she tripped on a step in her garden in late June.Elinor Barker, gearing up for her third Games after helping Britain to team pursuit gold in Rio and silver in Tokyo, said the rest of the team are still “a little bit in shock about it”. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Katie Archibald (@_katiearchibald)“Everybody is thinking of Katie,” Barker said. “Everybody who knows Katie just wants her to be happy. I think she deserves that and more.“It’s not been so much about the racing. It’s been about, ‘What does she need?’”Archibald’s housemate Josie Knight felt that as keenly as anyone.“For a while it really felt like, obviously along with Katie’s, it really felt like my whole Olympic dream had been a little bit crushed,” the 27-year-old said.“It was a strange balance of needing to refocus and be like, ‘Right, Katie’s out, let’s move on’, while also being a supportive housemate and friend, and being there for her.“It took a bit of time to refocus and realise that we still have this big opportunity and we have to make the most of it.”Archibald was due to be the lead rider in GB’s women’s endurance squad, inheriting that mantle from the retired Dame Laura Kenny and targeting the team pursuit, Madison and omnium.The Scot’s absence punches a big hole in GB’s plans, but is by no means the end of their ambitions.At last year’s world championships in Glasgow, Archibald raced but was a long way from her best as she dealt with emotional trauma following the death of her partner Rab Wardell.Even as she played a reduced role, Britain took team pursuit gold – their first
