Alessa-Catriona Propster on the Berlin round of the Track Champions League: ‘I’m so excited but really nervous too’

“It was just crazy. I never expected that it would go so good. When I came to Mallorca I didn’t know how my form was and… now I have this beautiful jersey.”

Propster says she didn’t approach the final with any particular tactical plan but was “a little happy to have position one [lower on the track.] I know that I can go a long time from the front, so it was perfect for me.”

And it was perfect for her. As Finucane went high on the track, Propster seized the opportunity to hit out early, immediately gaining a lead of several bike lengths. Coming into the final turn, the British rider was closing, but Propster maintained her speed to take a clear and commanding win.

The German rider expected Finucane to at least draw level and admitted to being surprised by the margin of victory:

“A few metres before the end I thought ‘Okay where is Emma? I don’t know!’”

Did the other riders perhaps underestimate her?

“Yeah, maybe a little bit,” Propster said. “But I think they know that I can be strong.”

She is a touch self-critical of her performance in the keirin where she says “I was a little bit passive” but puts that down to the short recovery time, far less than sprinters usually get, between races:

“My legs burned so much because it was hard for me to have enough time between the heats,” Propster said. “But in the end it worked out.”

Work out it did. Although Propster didn’t quite have the legs to follow Martha Bayona when she came round at the bell with Ellesse Andrews, she was fast enough to hold off the other three riders for an impressive third-placed finish.

The combination of the two results added up to the overall lead in the women’s sprint league for her home round of the competition. Although Swabia, where she’s from, is some way from Berlin, Propster is promised plenty of local support:

“I’m so excited really but really nervous too,” she said. “A lot of friends are here. My best friend is coming to Berlin – I haven’t seen her in two years. My family will be here, my uncle and my aunt – they’ve never watched me race so it’s something special.”

She knows better than to let the occasion – not to mention the target that is now on her back – get to her. “It’s important to just be cool and don’t over-think everything,” she said.

Propster will have to if she wants to keep the lead which, at just three points over Colombia’s Bayona, is a slender one. She’s going to make sure to enjoy the occasion as well, because she wasn’t expecting to be in such a strong position after the opening weekend:

“I said to Kristina Vogel after the sprint it would be funny to be in the leader’s jersey in Berlin. But I never believed it.”