Clara a woman for all seasons

But when you speak to her it is easy to understand how she does it.

Hughes describes herself as "incredibly stubborn" and "single minded" and speaks with true affection for both her disciplines.

So which event does she prefer? "You know, people ask me that a lot and, honestly, I don't have a preference," she said.

"When I am skating and training really hard in the cold all I think about is cycling. When I am training on my bike I keep wishing I was skating. It's all relative to the pain I am suffering at that particular moment.

"Skating is beautiful because there's no machine involved. It's purely about how fast you can make your body go on ice.

"But cycling is all about the machine and how efficient you can be with it and I enjoy the tactics. I guess the truth is I love them both and that's why I do them both."

Skating was her first love, having become hooked at the age of 16 after watching Canadian speed skater, Gaetan Boucher, compete in his last Olympics in Calgary.

She recalls badgering her mum to buy her some skates and let her take it up. A year later, while training on a bike, her coach pointed out she had a natural gift for that too. So she took up cycling, concentrating on that for nearly a decade and enjoying a successful career as a professional rider with Team Saturn.

She said: "It started as me wanting to do something else in the summer time. I don't like being idle so I decided to take on both sports. I'm a pretty stubborn person and when I put my mind to it I can get things done and it has worked out pretty well and given me a lot in my life." It was only after she put her cycling career on hold after the disappointment of missing out on an Olympic medal in Sydney that she returned properly to skating.

It paid off handsomely as she picked up another bronze in Salt Lake. Now she is back on her bike and going for more medals in Manchester.

Hughes added: "It's taken a long time to get the training programme right and I've only just cracked it. When I rest now I rest completely and I basically race when I want to race and concentrate only on the major championships. That's why I am only doing the Commonwealth Games this year.

"It's strange, though. Because just five months ago I was in Salt Lake City at the Winter Olympics and now I am here. At first, I was comparing everything with Salt Lake but it suddenly dawned on me that this will be my last Commonwealth Games.

"They are very special to me and the atmosphere here is amazing. I love Manchester and the people are so funny. I haven't laughed so much in ages .

"I've got no plans to take up any other sports but I am doing the track here as well as the road so I guess I'm doing three sports because the velodrome is so different to road racing."

After her busy year you might think Hughes is planning to get back to Canada and put her feet up. You could not be more wrong.

"Yes, I am going to take a holiday after the Games with my husband," she explained. "But for some reason we've decided to go on a cycling tour in the north of Canada.

"I know it sounds crazy but we're going to be cycling for six or seven hours a day. The difference is it will be nice and slow."