A biography for Victoria Pendletonhasn’t been written yet.
“I just want to prove that I am really good at something. And I haven't quite done that yet - at least not to myself. I know I could ride so much better, with more ease, with more finesse. I feel I'm nowhere near as good as I should be.”
“Apparently, I have such a serious race face, even when I'm doing a bit of work, at first everybody wasn't sure if I was enjoying it or not. But it's absolutely exhilarating. It feels like you're one with your horse and you're flying.”
“I never really felt I had the same respect as my male team-mates. My opinion wasn't worth as much. I used to sit quietly in meetings and not say anything, as I knew my opinions would be disregarded. And that's after I had become Olympic champion and multiple world champion.”
“I naturally favour a clean, healthy diet. A salad sandwich is one of my favourite meals!”
“I'm not the perfect model of what an athlete should be, mentally or physically.”
“There's footage of me bouncing around, all uncoordinated, trying to work out how on earth you're supposed to do a rising trot on a really extravagant moving eventing horse.”
“I go round and round in circles, really, really fast, on a big wooden bowl.”
“As you ride in a steeplechase, and you're on the horse, going quite fast, you think, 'That's quite a big fence...' But trust the horse, and don't give him any reason to doubt you.”
“Winning the gold medal should have been the happiest day of my entire life, and it just wasn't. It felt like the saddest day of my life. Everyone was so angry with us, that Scott and I had fallen in love, because it was so unprofessional, and we were a disgrace and had betrayed everybody.”
“We don't talk about courage much in our everyday conversations, but I am comfortable with it now.”
“Being a track sprinter, when it's all about a thousandth of a second, there is no escaping the numbers every single day.”
“I am so in tune with my body that I know how it should feel.”
“Although, you know it's been really nice to wear the Olympic kit, I'm looking forward to wearing non-sports, feminine clothes.”
“Food plays a large part in our weekend, but on a Friday evening, I'll make us something simple for tea. I might have a wee glass of wine.”
“I could scrape water off horses all day long. That would never get boring.”
“We are all totally committed as elite athletes. To think that pushing people around and bullying them is the best way to get results out of them is just ludicrous.”
“A car is a killing machine. It's like waving a loaded gun. People don't realise how dangerous they are.”
“I have always loved animals and groomed friends' horses as a child. I think I may have even ridden the odd seaside donkey in my early years.”
“I love sport and will do just about anything. Someone said they'd had a go at skiing off a mountain with a parachute, and that sounds great!”
“I'm definitely capable of just enjoying riding my bike these days.”