LOOK WHO’S GOT BACK IN THE SADDLE
From gold at the London Olympics to a f lying leap at Cheltenham...
SHE said her retirement would be filled with ‘normal’ things such as cooking her husband’s dinner, walking their two dobermans and tending to the vegetable patch. But even a woman as dedicated as Victoria Pendleton must have worried how long she could keep up a Stepford Wife routine.
And sure enough, the queen of the velodrome is now back in the saddle – albeit not on a bicycle, but on a 1,200lb horse in an attempt to become a jump jockey.
The 34-year-old – who competed in her first race last month, a charity event at Newbury on board the giant Mighty Mambo – has more rides pencilled in, and even hopes to challenge in the prestigious Foxhunter Chase, a race known as the ‘amateur Gold Cup’ at Cheltenham next March.
The huge fences taken at speeds in excess of 30mph are not for the faint-hearted. ‘It might be mental… well, it is totally mental. But I’m free! I’m free to do whatever I want,’ says Victoria in a surprisingly frank interview. ‘I’d been racing bikes since I was nine so it was a long time of the same thing.
‘But when I retired I missed going into training and knowing exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I still love gardening, but I felt old before my time.’
Today, standing on tiptoes, Victoria can just about reach to scrub the forehead of Mighty Mambo as he gets a post-gallop washdown back at the Lawney Hill stables in Oxfordshire. This week she takes her A licence, which will allow her to compete i n amateur races, and is set to ride at Ripon on August 31.
Victoria was riding a bike by the time she was three, encouraged by her father Max, a keen amateur cyclist. With two golds (including one at London 2012) and a silver, she is our most successful female Olympian, and a woman who proved that you could beat the competition and still look amazing in a frock.
Victoria admits she was ‘relieved’ to retire after the London Games, but in an experience shared by many top sportsmen and women, she also felt lost. So when last year she was offered the chance to learn to race horses under the auspices of Yogi Breisner, Team GB’s equestrian guru who trains Zara Phillips, she leapt at it.
‘I wouldn’t have been allowed to do it before,’ Victoria concedes. ‘Horse riding was on the “no” list like skiing. I wasn’t even allowed to go to the cinema because of germs. ‘I l oved cycling and was part of an awesome time in the sport, but it was a relief to leave it behind. That said, being in your early 30s and feeling like it’s over for you career-wise is frightening. You work so hard for something in your life and suddenly it’s over. I underestimated how much I’d miss being part of a team.’ It is a slightly surprising view from a woman who has previously admitted to feeling alienated by members of the British cycling squad in the run-up to London. This followed the revelation after the 2008 Beijing Games that she and Scott Gardner, a sports scientist who was part of her team, had fallen in love – they are now married. Such a relationship is taboo in professional sport. ‘There were some tough times,’ she says curtly. ‘It was harder than it needed to be. I’ll never forget, but there comes a point when you have to forgive.
‘Being an athlete is so specific and unusual. Living your life around one particular goal is weird. It doesn’t allow you much time to have a life. Everything comes second to your performance. Even your friends and family have to take second place at times and that’s not normal.’
That, she says, won’t happen again, although her father still doesn’t ‘get’ her new career and hopes she will return to cycling.
In her 2012 autobiography, Between The Lines, Victoria wrote that her father made her either ‘very happy or very miserable’, and that she would spend her weekends trying to keep up with him on rides to gain his love.
Tellingly, Max did not give her away at her wedding – that honour fell to her twin brother, Alex.
‘Dad thinks I’m a bit crazy,’ Victoria says laughing. ‘He’s like, “You could still be a road racer.” I said, “Dad, come on, you have to let go now”. I couldn’t be a cyclist any more. I’ve lost so much weight I could never be a sprinter again. It would take me a lifetime to put that muscle back on.’
Victoria has lost a stone since the Olympics (‘I haven’t tried to lose
I miss my muscly thighs – I worked hard for those
weight. I just haven’t done any weight training’) but unlike most other women, she is looking forward to having her power thighs back.
‘My thighs are a lot smaller than they were,’ she sighs. ‘But horse racing is going to make them bigger which is great. I miss the way they used to look. I worked hard for those bad boys. Muscly, solid thighs are a good thing, right?’
While she might have thighs fit for racing, it’s fair to say that her expe- rience as a horsewoman is minimal. ‘I don’t come from a horsey background – I’m not that posh,’ she says. ‘I did ask Father Christmas for a pony several times but he wasn’t forthcoming. My Dad just said, “Why on earth do you want a horse? Have a bike – you don’t have to muck it out.’ In the Foxhunter, Victoria will join up to 25 other riders to thunder along the three-mile course at speeds of 35mph. ‘The jumps are massive, there’s no doubt about that but the horses are massive too,’ she says. ‘It is going to be daunting.’ And, as on a bike, the odd fall is inevitable. ‘You have to accept it happens,’ says Victoria. ‘If a horse swerves and you are on a racing saddle there is not a lot to hang on with.
‘Imagine a tug-of-war with everything you’ve got. How long could you hold it for? So it’s quite strenuous with the lactic acid and you feel a deep burn, which is similar to sprint cycling in some ways.’
During her cycling career Victoria was well used to being dismissed as a ‘girlie girl’ – and confounding the critics. ‘It would be lovely to say I’ve had a small impact [on changing attitudes],’ she admits. ‘I have a twin brother and we had everything exactly the same. Dad never made me feel like I should be able to achieve anything less.
‘People said I was too small, too feminine, too this, too that. There was nothing nicer than being able to stand at the end with two fingers up going, “I told you so. Don’t be so quick to judge.”’
She was also criticised for posing in a number of fashion magazines in the run-up to the Olympics, not least when she appeared naked on the cover of one publication. ‘Well, my body was looking in great shape. There’s no doubt about that,’ she says with a sniff. ‘And I didn’t actually pose completely naked. My pants were airbrushed off afterwards. I don’t know if you’ve ever been stark naked in a room of 12 people you’ve never met before but it is a little bit awkward. Pants make it a lot easier to deal with.’
As for her next challenge, Victoria is under no illusions how tough it will be. ‘I could never be a professional jockey but it’s awesome to try new things. There’s no harm in failing either. It’s better to try something and not quite make it than to never know.’
It’s frightening to think at 30 that your career is over