Aviemore cyclist Ellie Stone is keen to soak up as much experience as she can at her first Commonwealth Games.
Stone was chosen in the Team Scotland squad for the Games in Birmingham last month after just three years as an elite rider.
Her background is in athletics, where she competed for Inverness Harriers, before partaking in a UK Sport talent transfer in 2019 which highlighted track cycling as a potential option.
It is a similar route to the one fellow Scotland team-mate Lauren Bell took to join the programme. The two also attended Forres Academy together.
Ellie Stone has been selected in the Team Scotland cycling squad. Stone will be the pilot for Paralympic legend Aileen McGlynn, who has seven Paralympic medals – three gold – to her name as well as four Commonwealth ones for Scotland.
“I didn’t know as early as most people; I wasn’t selected in the first round (of picks for the Games) but I found out a week before it was announced I would be going,” she said.
“I feel sorry for everyone else – I had to try keep it in for a week and it was hard. Everyone else had to do it for weeks.
“I hadn’t given up on it. I wasn’t selected for a solo place but I saw I had this chance – it was very 50-50 as I was wondering ‘am I training for something that isn’t going to happen? Luckily it went my way.”
It has been a promising start to 2022 for Stone. She won the keirin and the 500m time-trial at the National Track Championships in March, ahead of Team Scotland colleagues Bell, Iona Moir and Lusia Steele. The trio then teamed up to finish third in the team sprint.
Her experience with tandem-cycling totals less than six weeks but having a crash course with a seasoned winner like McGlynn has brought her on leaps and bounds.
“She’s quite cool – she told me it was probably going to be her last Games and it’ll be my first,” added Stone.
“I started tandem with her about four weeks ago, so it’s been a first for a lot of things.
“I’ve been trying to learn everything from her and she’s so easy to ride with. I first tried tandem two weeks before I got on with her, just so I had some sort of idea what I was doing.
“I was on with my gym coach and it was so wobbly, as neither of us really had an idea how to ride. When she came on the back I was like ‘wow, we can go in a straight line!’
“It’s obvious how good she is. I appreciated it a lot more.”
