Laura Kenney's victory in the Commonwealth Games scratch race may have looked familiar. This time, however, it was different.

After the awards ceremony, an emotional Kenney revealed that she had "lost her sparkle" this year. On top of that, he had suffered a "crisis of confidence" the day before, when he was rated a lowly 13th in the points race.

After becoming the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history and Britain's most successful female Olympian in any sport at last year's Tokyo Olympics, Kenny has had a tough time lately: a miscarriage in November and an ectopic pregnancy in January forced her to have her fallopian tubes removed.

Kenny revealed that she has seriously considered retiring several times.

"I can't believe it. Honestly, I said to Jason [Kenney-husband] last night, 'I think this is my last race,'" she told the BBC after winning the scratch race. I looked at [swimmer] Adam Peaty and totally recounted his interview. Every day I'm like, 'Oh, here we go again. I've been to three Olympics. It's been a nightmare, to be honest, to keep myself motivated this past year. I lost all motivation."

On top of that, Kenny did not get off to the best start at the Commonwealth Games. She herself said she was "terribly out of shape" last week, describing herself as the "weak link" in the bronze medal-winning Team Pursuit quartet, which finished 13th in the points race on Sunday.

She revealed that it had something to do with her confidence taking another hit after witnessing Matt Walls' horrific crash off the banking into the stands on Sunday.

"I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. When you witness a crash like that, you think, 'What am I doing? I've been really lucky in my career. One broken shoulder and one broken arm. But when you see something like that, you go to ......."

"I'm going to be back in the field soon.

"I immediately sent a message to Monica [Greenwood, British Cycling's coach]: serious self-doubt. I didn't want to go out on the track. Whenever I'm in that mood, I don't race well. It was the same yesterday. I had a terrible race and didn't get any results."

But Kenny turned things around dramatically on Monday. She was willing to hand over the scratch race to her younger teammate Grace Lister, but before Kenny could take gold on the last lap, Sophie Lewis swooped in to recover from a late attack by Scotland's Nair Evans.

"I felt like a completely different rider," Kenny said.

"I was so on fire. I kept saying to myself in the bathroom, 'I'm going to do this. I was sending a message to my new coach last night, and he said, 'No. I'm not giving up! I'm not giving up. I'm going to roll the dice one more time. Please help me. And honestly, it couldn't have gone better."

In a subsequent statement from British Cycling, she added: "I was in the bathroom and I said to myself, 'I'm not going to give up. 'I told myself in the bathroom that I was going to do it." I had to race like Laura Trott, like that old bike rider, and I didn't think about anything but crossing the finish line first."

"Once I changed my mindset, my mood totally changed."