“I half-expected to see donkeys and carts but it’s not like Borat at all!”

Josie Knight is the sole Irish competitor in the World Junior track championships in Astana, Kazakhstan this weekend.

The Dingle woman goes in the 2k Individual Pursuit on Friday morning followed by the 5K scratch race and omnium with the latter event finishing on Sunday.

She’s had a pretty incredible week so far in terms of getting to Kazakhstan, being relieved to see it’s not anything like the place portrayed in the film 'Borat' and being even more relieved that there’s porridge at the buffet.

Here is a superb diary she’s penned about the week so far…

(Pictures courtesy of Brian Nugent, Cycling Ireland High Performance coach)

Saturday August 15th: Travel Day

I woke up full of excitement and nerves because I couldn’t wait to actually be on the plane.

We were in Derby at the Revoltution in the evening so had a two-hour drive to Heathrow airport where we were due to fly out from.

We arrived and met up with Stacey (Kelly) who would once again be soigneur for the week and checked the three bike boxes and our bags in.

The flight was nearly six hours long and because Kazakhstan is five hours ahead it meant we’d arrive at about 3.30am their time.

However, our flight was delayed by an hour leaving so we didn’t arrive in Astana until about 4.30 am and then we had to sort our visas out which didn't take too long.

We finally got through and found all our bags and bikes and got the organiser’s bus to the track to drop off the bikes there and then take us to the hotel.

It was now close to seven in the morning so basically we’d lost the whole of Saturday night’s sleep.

We checked in, had some breakfast and then went to sleep.

I woke up at 12noon on Sunday so I got a good five hours' sleep.

It was vital not to sleep past 12 though as my body would've had real trouble adjusting to the jetlag then.

No donkeys or carts around here in downtown Astana!

Sunday August 16th: Day 1 in Astana.

Luckily our training slot on the track today wasn't until 5.30 so that worked out really well.

I just rested until 4.15 and then headed down to the track to get my bikes built and ride around a bit.

Once on the bus I felt full of energy and excitement; I love going to ride new tracks and the whole atmosphere of competition.

My training slot was with Ukraine, Italy, Japan and Switzerland so once we got the bikes built I went up on my bunch bike for 20 minutes easy just to get the feel for the track.

It's a nice track, a bit bumpy in places but nothing too severe.

I then switched over to my pursuit bike and rode around on that for a while, just easy.

It's funny how just a year ago I found getting up on a new track with loads of different nations the most daunting thing ever, it terrified me, but now, having travelled to so many different tracks with the senior team over the winter, it's not in the least bit daunting anymore.

After that we went back to the hotel and had dinner and went to bed early to catch up on sleep.

The food in the hotel is pretty basic with pasta, rice and some kind of meat, sometimes not the most appetizing so to stay safe I have plenty of tins of tuna with me (can't go wrong with a tin of tuna!)

Monday Aug 17th: Day 2 in Astana.

Had a good 9 hours sleep last night so that was good, my body is adjusting pretty well I think.

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and thankfully, the breakfast here is great; porridge is an absolute must for me every day so I was delighted when I saw that here.

I have to be careful with what I eat, so my usual breakfast here is a bowl of porridge with some dried fruit and seeds, followed by some fruit, a kiwi or peach maybe and then I eat two hard-boiled eggs but I don't eat the yoke as I'm purely eating them for the protein.

Track was about midday today where I had a moderate session with a few efforts but nothing too hard as tomorrow would be the hard training day.

Tuesday August 18th: Day 3 in Astana.

As track was at 9 this morning it meant breakfast at 7.30.

Funnily enough, I suffered more this morning from jetlag than any other day.

I found it tough waking up at 7 and just wanted to sleep much longer.

It was a hard day at the track today with some proper efforts such as a standing 6-lap and a flying 8-lap effort.

I also got to do some practice with the gate and the beeps which were brilliant as the beeps just fill me with nerves!

After track I got a great rub from Stacey, who's keeping my legs in top condition.

I then had rollers to do later on in the day so we went back down to the track at 5.30 as Brian had the manager’s meeting then and I like to get out of the hotel as much as possible to limit the boredom!

Wednesday August 19th: Day 4 in Astana.

Today was a rest day but I had 20 minutes to do on the rollers in the afternoon.

We went to watch the women’s team pursuit qualifying in the morning just to get out of the hotel and to check out who looks to be going well in the teams.

I didn’t know what to expect from Kazakhstan coming into the country as the only thing I'd ever seen was Borat but to my surprise Astana is nothing like the way Borat portrays the country.

Of course the film was a complete joke but I still expected to see the odd farmer and his donkey and cart, but not at all.

It's an incredibly modern city with some pretty amazing architecture.

Everyone drives very smart cars as well - so it’s far from Borat country!

Thursday August 20th: Day 5 in Astana.

Today was all about 'opening up' for race day tomorrow.

The free track time was in the morning so we had breakfast and headed down to do some final prep.

Today was all about doing things how I will do them tomorrow so that hopefully tomorrow won't be too daunting and to see whether anything needs to be changed.

Everything went pretty well so hopefully tomorrow will be the same.

I'm looking forward to getting the most I can out of myself and we will see where that leaves me!