Maggie makes World Championships

The selection came as a complete surprise to Skinner and was off the back of being the 14th female home in the Tour of Cambridgeshire cycle race at the beginning of June.

Skinner had hoped to compete in the London Marathon this year but tore her calf back in January so took up cycling to maintain her fitness.

Her previous cycling experiences to date have only ever been in triathlon and Ironman events, so a pure cycling race was completely out of her comfort zone.

She said after the Tour of Cambridgeshire: “Never having done a closed roads race before I had been training hard but felt completely out of my depth, nervous of crashing or being dropped by the peloton if I couldn’t keep up the 21+mph pace needed.

“It was a fresh new challenge with lots of long hours in the saddle, far longer than any marathon training had ever seen me do.

“The last 10 miles of the race were excruciating, with lactic build-up in my quads like I’ve never experienced running.”

Skinner did the race in memory of her good friend Alison Regan who sadly passed away two years ago of mesothelioma.