Emma Finucane has what it takes to deal with ‘pressure’ Victoria Pendleton comparisons as Olympic track cycling in Paris gets underway, reckons Jo Rowsell.

Welsh speedster Finucane, 21, kicks off her campaign on Monday as she combines with Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell in the women’s team sprint at the Velodrome Nationale.

Finucane surged to a stunning individual sprint triumph at last year’s World Championships in Glasgow and arrives in the French capital tipped to follow in double Olympic champion Pendleton’s footsteps as the next sprinting golden girl of British cycling.

Rowsell, 35, won two team pursuit golds herself and believes precocious world team sprint silver medallist Finucane, whose individual keirin and sprint events begin on Wednesday and Friday, is supplied with the steel to cope with that mantle this week.

“It seems like Emma is dealing really well with the comparisons that seem to be made with Victoria Pendleton, who has won two Olympic gold medals,” said discovery+ and Eurosport pundit Rowsell.

“I was just super impressed with how she dealt with the pressure at those World Championships. 

“Going into it, everyone was talking about her, she was still very young and relatively unknown. But within the cycling world, everyone was saying she had the form and she dealt with everything that week so brilliantly. 

“So far I have been impressed with how strong she has been given how young she is and how new this is all to her.

“She is still relatively new to competing at this level but she seems to be taking it all in her stride and dealing with it brilliantly. Fingers crossed she can be pull it off in Paris.” 

Finucane catapulted herself onto the global scene with that remarkable individual sprint gold in Glasgow last year.

That made her the first British women’s sprint star to be crowned world champion for over a decade and accompanied by Capewell and Lauren Bell, she also scooped team event silver.

She followed that global success up with individual European glory in Apeldoorn earlier this year and arrives in Paris as one of Team GB’s strongest cycling medal hopes.

She will now be joined by 2016 individual sprint bronze medallist Marchant, returning from the birth of her first child, in the team event today.

Marchant, 31, won 500m time trial gold in Apeldoorn and also helped Britain to team sprint silver in the Netherlands.

And speaking on the influence of the experienced Leeds star, five-time world champion Rowsell added: “She is just in the form of her life.

“She is putting out fantastic times and she is just like a new rider. 

“I think it has been a breath of fresh air having the young riders coming through, challenging her.

“She is by no means settled in the squad because we have got so much strength in depth, there is a lot of fight for those places in the squad and that has kept everybody fresh.

“And the experience she has got of having been at two Olympic Games previously, having won a medal previously will just help the younger ones.”

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