After recovering from a gall bladder infection that had required a stay in hospital, 22-year-old Lizzie Armitstead had strained her side in training and been forced to pull out of the big event.

Which meant that the new arrival from Cheshunt, who had only just got her domestic routine in the nearby team apartments sorted out, was being called upon to make yet another big step up on a path that she – and British Cycling – hopes will lead to the London 2012 Games, and several others after that.

The reason for Manning's laughter was the knowledge that Trott, who had been preparing for the last three months to appear in the team pursuit, would now have to add six more events in a two-day period.

The omnium, as its name implies, embraces all aspects of cycling, involving timed and endurance events. Under the format introduced by the international cycling body (UCI) and adopted, controversially, to replace the individual pursuit, points race and Madison events starting at the London 2012 Games, there are six elements: a flying lap (against the clock), a points race, an elimination race, an individual pursuit, a scratch race and a time trial.

It is a big ask. But Trott, smiles outside, steel inside, is ready to reply. And the answer is: yes.

Shortly before her senior championship debut at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, I spoke to Trott in the Athletes' Village about her aspirations at the event. Sensibly, she spoke in terms of gaining experience rather than targeting specific places, although she was looking for a personal best in the individual pursuit. It would all help her build towards her long-term goal of achievement in the omnium – at which she had just become world junior champion.

"The omnium is perfect for me," she said. "Because I used to be a sprinter, but I wasn't an out-and-out sprinter, so they moved me back on to endurance. So when the omnium came in it meant I could do a bit of both.

"We've got two more in the omnium – Lizzie is an excellent omnium rider, and we've got Anna Blyth as well, who also got moved from the sprint to the endurance side.

"I've got more chance of going to 2016 than I have to 2012, but I'm not counting 2012 out. Lizzie is still a lot, lot stronger than I am, and obviously there's Anna as well. The two of them are a lot stronger than me in, say, a bunch race.

"But when it comes to timed events I'm really good against the clock compared to them. So I think there's a lot of room for me to improve, and road races are easier to improve upon than timed events.

"So for me it's more about gaining the experience because obviously I am still a junior.

"I want to move forwards from the World Junior Championships. Nobody can take that away from you, but you can't dwell on it. So I want to do the senior Europeans next month – I'll have the omnium there – and I can see how I compare to the other riders."

She got her pb in the Commonwealth pursuit. She attended the Europeans, winning gold in the team pursuit and finishing a hugely creditable fourth in the omnium. Two big steps. And now she is on the brink of another.

"At the start of the year I wouldn't have dreamed of going to these World Championships. I would have thought 'there's no way I can be up to this level yet,' she told insidethegames this week.

"By the time of the Europeans, to be honest, I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been selected because I did feel like I was in shape to do something there.

"But the worlds are an even bigger deal."

Originally the task lying ahead of Trott this week was to build on the success of the team pursuit effort in Poland, when she had combined with Olympic individual silver medallist Wendy Houvenaghel and Katie Colclough – now her flatmate in Manchester – to take the European gold by a six-second margin.

It was already something of a triumph for her to have been included in the squad for Apeldoorn as one of the four riders – the others being Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell and 20-year-old Dani King - selected to carry Britain's chances in the team pursuit, where three are due to race in Thursday's qualifying and, ideally, final.

"When you think about the numbers – there were 12 of us going for three places in the team pursuit this year, and now it is down to a squad of four," she said.

"So there are eight riders who won't be going, including Rebecca Romero, an Olympic champion. It was a shock to me too that Sarah Storey wasn't in the team. I mean, she's just won two golds at the World Para-cycling Championships...

"It's a tough game we are in. But it's our job too."

After competing at the Commonwealths, Trott had been due to move up from her family home in Cheshunt to join the national squad in Manchester, where she was due to share one of the team apartments near the velodrome with her sister Emma.

Trott junior did make the move up north – but Trott senior had to change her plans because of changes to the road cycling arrangements, and is now based in Belgium.

Which meant that Laura had to get used to being fully independent at the age of 18 – the university experience. And like so many students before her, she found that being expected to wash, shop and clean was a bit of an ask away from the comfortable environ of home.

"To start with I found it really hard," she said. "I wasn't used to doing everything for myself and I couldn't seem to find time to do things. But since Katie moved in it has helped me get organised. She has been based in Manchester for three years so she knows her way around."

Support on the track has also been forthcoming from many directions.

"I didn't realise that I would be working so closely with Olympic champions like Chris Hoy and Vicky Pendleton," Trott said. "After the selections had been made for the European championships we were riding together a lot of the time, and they made me feel really at home.

"Obviously they knew I was a lot younger, and I think they looked after me. Wendy was also really good to me – she took me under her wing."



Looking back on her Commonwealth experience, she reflected: "I didn't realise how big a step up it was going to be. In road races you can just rock up and do well. I've won races against seniors on the roads. But on the track it's a lot harder. You don't realise how much stronger the riders are – it's something you have to experience.

"But riding in Delhi, and at the European Championships afterwards, sort of set me up. I'm glad I did them.

"When Paul told me I was doing the omnium at the worlds, I thought: 'Oh my God, I'm actually going to have to do six more events, and I haven't been training for the omnium at all.

"I am better at the timed events than the bunch races. The bunch races have really let me down, I'm really not very good at them. So I need to be in the top four of the timed events.

"I just need to learn and to watch more races. I need to get more ideas so I know what to do at certain points in the race.

"When I won the world junior omnium it was because I was strong. I knew I had a bigger engine. But in senior racing I also need to use my head to make the right moves at the right times. When I do an effort I need to do it at the right moment.

"As things stand I think I will still be concentrating on the team pursuit for the next Olympics. It's definitely one of my strong points. And there's a lot more risk in the omnium – you could lose a medal in an elimination race. But I'm only 18, and there will be other Olympics after London."

Trott's parents, Glenda and Adrian, her uncle Nigel and her aunt Tina, have already got their tickets for Thursday's team pursuit, and Emma, who is racing in the Netherlands at the weekend, is also hoping to get to see her little sister in action then.

Trott is hopeful they will enjoy their spectating experience.

"We have been working so well together as a team, anything could happen at the worlds," she said.

Unfortunately tickets have been harder to come by for the omnium on Saturday and Sunday, especially as her involvement has been decided at such short notice. But even if her family supporters cannot be present in the arena, Trott is determined to make it a memorable weekend.

"I'm going to go into the omnium as an underdog," she said. "The others riders won't really know me. They will probably be thinking 'she's the second best Brit, what can she do? She's only 18 at the end of the day'.

"But this is a massive stepping stone for me on the way to London 2012. It's a chance for me to see what I can do."

The first chance of many, without doubt.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames