BEHIND THE FILTER

Frustrated with the sepia-tinged perfection of cycling Instagram accounts, Olympic gold medallist Elinor Barker runs down her real daily routine in all its slovenly detail

- Elinor Barker

8.00 – My (first) alarm goes off. I don’t need to be up until 8.30. However, I was not fortunate enough to be born a morning person, so it takes me a few snoozes to remember my name, where I am and what I’m supposed to be doing today.

First up is breakfast, almost always a big bowl of porridge. I briefly consider emulating the Insta-style mix of seeds and fruits arranged in straight lines over the top, but decide I’m too hungry for that level of patience and reach for the Nutella instead.

While I’m drinking my coffee with frothed milk lumped on top, I scroll through social media and see my fellow cyclists have been up for hours, finished their art-topped lattes, completed a core workout, become fluent in Mandarin and are halfway round their (longer than what I have planned) training loops already. I put my shorts on and resolve that my new life as a world-dominating early riser starts tomorrow.

9.30 – I head out to meet my training group and we ride together chatting. I have some sprints to do, so everybody takes it in turns to race (beat) me.