Laura Trott has framed the rainbow jersey she earned by winning the world junior championships in August and hung it on her bedroom wall alongside her spoils for winning European junior gold the previous year.
Luckily there is still plenty of space because, at 18, Trott looks likely to be earning a lot more jerseys and medals in the next few years.
Although she cites Britain’s world and Olympic sprint champion Victoria Pendleton as her sporting hero, Trott’s ambitions centre upon the omnium event, the mixture of sprint and endurance cycling which was voted for inclusion to the Olympics from 2012.
But with no omnium scheduled for Delhi 2010, her schedule at the velodrome in the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex involves the 500m time trial – on Tuesday 3 October – the individual pursuit, the points race and the scratch race.
Trott, whose elder sister Emma is riding here in the road races, bubbles with enthusiasm at the prospect which lies ahead.
“The facilities are great,” she said. “And the track – oh, I just love the track. It’s actually one of the nicest tracks I’ve ridden. It doesn’t feel that fast, but it’s got a really good grip on it.
“I’m really enjoying the Games experience. I was trying to explain it to my mum and dad on the phone, and it’s not something you can actually imagine. You have to be here. It’s like – ‘I’m living in a block of flats, but it’s not a block of flats.’ It’s so hard to explain.”
At least she doesn’t have to explain to her sister, with whom she is sharing a Games Village apartment. “Emma wants a medal in the time trial, and I think she stands a really good chance,” she said.
“She always seems to pull it out of the bag when it matters. She might rock up to like, a club 10, and do a rubbish time, but then she’ll rock up to, I don’t know, a stage race, and do really well. She did a checked stage race not so long ago and she beat the likes of Nicole Cooke. So I reckon she’s got a good chance – and obviously she’s now got Emma Pooley, the world champion.”
When it comes to assessing her own chances, Trott is sensibly restrained.
“All the Aussie girls will be strong. They’ve got the team they would pick for the Olympics or the worlds. For us, Anna Blyth is an excellent race rider – she can do amazing here. And then in the individual pursuit I’m up against Sarah Storey. 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.
“In the pursuit I know that obviously Sarah’s stronger than I am, but I’m just in front of Anna. In terms of the other nations, I don’t know because I haven’t raced them yet.
“I’m not really looking for results as such. I’d like to do a personal best in the individual pursuit, because I feel I’ve got more form now than I had two weeks ago when I did my pb. In the points race I just want to get some points.
“And in the scratch anything can happen. I could win it, or I could also come last, because it’s literally first across the line wins. So something can happen, someone could get a lap, six could get a lap, or there could be a mass crash, God forbid, which could leave it clear for someone else.”
Beyond these Games, however, an Olympic challenge looms. For Trott, it’s just a matter of how soon she will address it.
“I’ve got more chance of going to 2016 than I have to 2012, but I’m not counting 2012 out,” she said. “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.
“The omnium is perfect for me. Because I used to be a sprinter, but I wasn’t an out-and-out sprinter, so they moved me back onto 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 Armitstead 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 think it just makes it a bit more equal. I mean, a rider like me is never going to reduce the world record for the individual pursuit, but I can still do a good time in it. So it’s just more of a balance, rather than saying ‘You’ve got to be either this or this’.”
After the Games are over, Laura will be making the big move from her home in Cheshunt to the Cycling Academy in Manchester. There shouldn’t be any problems about who to share with. Emma’s already there.