Salter is this year part of the Great Britain podium potential track squad – a faction of British Cycling’s talent pathway – which is a full-time programme that is a step below the elite Olympic-level riders.
Although the programme was largely revamped in 2022, it is the platform the likes of Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish and Laura Kenny all progressed through.
He has also joined the development team of Alpecin-Premier Tech – one of the top WorldTour road squads in the peloton – and has been racing in Europe for the first time.
Yet Salter describes 2026 as a year in which he has tried to “re-focus” after a disrupted period due to a blood clot discovered on his brain in late 2024.
“Thankfully it was in the off-season so I didn’t miss too much training but it was then going through the process of a couple of weeks in hospital, getting through that and then trying to get back on the bike was quite hard,” Salter said.
“I wasn’t allowed to race for a little while afterwards which maybe wrote last season off a bit, but I’ve really tried to re-focus after it and try to come back as strong as I can, which I know I can do.”
Rather than dwell on the challenging times in his young career so far, Salter said he chooses to focus on what is in front of him – with the Commonwealth Games the next big goal.
“I move forward and realised that eventually it’s not all going to go in a straight line, you just have to try to move forward and try to keep pushing to where you know you can be,” Salter said.
“When you achieve something big you can look back and see everything you’ve come through and it really puts a highlight on everything you do achieve.”