Husband eases stress for Kenny after midnight nappy changes ruin pre-race sleep

Laura Kenny (GBR) rode to her 12th European track cycling gold medal at Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Emirates Arena, on Sunday despite enduring "about five" interruptions to her pre-race night's sleep from her toddler son.

Getty Images

Kenny - who won three Olympic gold medals as Laura Trott before marrying six-time Olympic champion and Great Britain team-mate Jason Kenny in September 2016 - has made a measured return to competitive cycling since the birth of Albie last August.

"Seriously, he didn't actually fall asleep at all last night, the little sod, but you get used to it," Kenny said after pedalling to victory in the Glasgow 2018 European Championships elimination race.

"Jason comes in in the middle of the night to change his nappy and then goes back, and then in the morning he takes him on and I get two hours' sleep, so we tag team," she said. "It works well, though. We both made it here all right, didn't we?"

Getty Images

Laura said that for her, the anguish of riding a poor race had lessened since the arrival of their son.

"If I'd had a bad session I'd stress about it, it's all I would think about, whereas now I don't have time to think about that," she said.

"Albie is running around like you wouldn't believe at the minute, so I'm making sure he's not pulling the wires out of the wall or sticking stuff in plug sockets, rather than thinking about riding around in circles.

"I don't even feel like I've had a lack of sleep any more, I just come in and get on with it."

Anna Knauer (GER) won silver and Evgenia Augustinas (RUS) bronze.