Victoria Pendleton: Cycling's Golden Girl

'Victoria Pendleton is the Olympic champion!

'The magnificent display of confidence, power and speed.

'The queen of the track delivers in China.'

I felt almost numb, and I thought, "Wow,

"I really thought this would feel different,"

like I'd be overwhelmed with emotion

and I wouldn't be able to hold it back.

And I didn't feel anything.

It's hard to believe that I actually did it.

Victoria Pendleton is the world's greatest ever female track cyclist.

Olympic champion in Beijing 2008,

and world champion in six of the past eight years.

She has set the standards for a generation,

and dominated a sport that demands power, speed and bravery.

I compete in a sport on an individual basis,

but I never have done it for me.

I was always cycling for my dad,

and then the coaches got bigger and my results got better

and suddenly the responsibility grows and I'm doing it for somebody else,

I'm doing it for a programme, I'm doing it for the country,

I'm doing it for, like, everybody.

My success has got so great, it's like I'm trapped almost within it.

I'm going downhill way too fast and there is no brakes.

I can't stop.

We followed her final season in the sport.

The only thing that really matters to me is going well in London.

That's all that matters. It's all I'm trying to do.

I want it to be the most amazing exit

that I could possibly have from the sport,

and say, thank you very much, and now I'm done.

For me, Vicky's probably been the greatest woman sprinter of all time.

If people appreciated the hurdles she's overcome to achieve that,

that greatness, they'd be amazed.

I don't suppose anyone could tell the full story apart from Vicky.

The most joy I've had from that Olympic gold medal

I can honestly say is popping it over some young kid's neck,

round their neck and they're just like....

SHE GASPS

It's like, "Remember this, Vic, this is what it's about."

It's special when people get excited about something in that way.

For Victoria Pendleton,

the European Championships are the first of three major competitions

she will race before she bows out at the London Olympics.

She may have to battle her way through more than ten races

to win a gold medal during a long day of competition.

It would be a gruelling schedule for a rider in great form and full of confidence,

but Victoria arrives in Holland devoid of both.

When I'm at competition I spend a lot of time questioning myself,

like, why do I put myself through this?

It's one of my biggest flaws,

is caring what other people think about me.

I don't want to be a let-down.

Once celebrated as "the queen of the boards",

this is the first year since 2006

that Victoria has not been world champion.

The individual sprint is a brutal examination of will,

self-belief and often domineering tactics

designed to expose the weaker rider in a one-on-one battle.

It's a classic game of cat and mouse

that ends with a pulsating sprint to the finish line.

It is quite hard when you go to a Championships

and you're not in that perfect form, like the form you know you could be in or should be in,

and people are still asking you,

"What went wrong, why didn't you win?"

I always assumed disappointment in other people

rather than them actually displaying it,

I just assumed it because that's how I felt about myself,

so therefore everyone else must feel the same about me.

Yeah, maybe I do kind of seek some kind of approval

in the people around me.

It really matters what they think, I want them to be proud of me

and I want them to be pleased with what I've done

and that makes me feel good about myself.

I know you won't.

The European Championships provides stark proof

of how much work Victoria still has to do.

Unconvincing both in qualifying and the early rounds,

she's knocked out in the quarter finals.

For the Olympic champion, it's a devastatingly early exit.

She has four months to prepare for her next competition,

time that will be spent training and contemplating.

I have a lot of nightmares about being chased

and almost caught all the time.

I can honestly say I know what that thing is that's chasing me,

and it's got a big 2012 sign all across it!

Normally, over that last 25 metres,

she tends to want it more than the others

and that's what's made her so great in the past.

That's not been there today. It's up to us to rekindle it.

It's quite surreal to think I haven't grown up

dreaming about doing this at all.

It just happened.

I never would have thought I was going to the Olympics.

I quite enjoy sport and now I'm Olympic Champion, so...

that's a bit weird, isn't it?

How old must we be there?

There's the embarrassing yellow tricycle there

that still haunts me to this day.

My dad built like this carriage on the back of the tricycle

so Alex and I could both get carried along.

When you were sitting behind, everyone's pointing, going,

"Look at those two,"

you're facing them, you're like, "yeah," head down.

-Two little twins on the back.

-Two little twins on the back.

I love these pictures with you on the train or something like that.

Going somewhere like Great Ormond Street or something, aren't we?

And Alex has got no hair.

She was only four when Alex was diagnosed.

I don't think Victoria could've really realised how unwell he was.

I mean, you can't talk about, er, potentially your twin brother dying.

But for two three, years,

the whole of the family's attention,

you know, grandparents included, was really on Alex.

I think from there on, Victoria was vying for attention

and I think that was a part of...

made her so competitive in everything.

My dad's always been a really keen cyclist,

it's kind of his way of life.

I've been watching him race as long as I can remember,

so it was like inevitable that when I was old enough to race a bike in some format, I would be.

It's the one all-round sport.

Put two cyclists together and it's a race.

You get the pleasure from beating people.

I think we're all competitors in this world,

but I want to win...everything.

If he wasn't able to train,

he got quite upset, uptight, wasn't a happy man.

Wherever he went, the bikes went too,

and if the bikes didn't go, Dad didn't go.

-It was a big part.

-Yeah.

-Every holiday.

-Yeah.

-All the weekends.

-Yeah.

If I said he was a pushy parent,

it wouldn't be a million miles away from the truth.

You know, we'd go up some really massive hill somewhere

and he'd ride away from me and I'd think,

"He's not even going to look back,

"he's not even going to look back to see if I'm coming."

That was his way of encouraging me to do it.

The car's over the next hill, you have to cycle over it,

the sooner you cycle over it, the sooner you can get home.

The wording is character building, isn't it?

That's probably the way he was schooled, you know,

it was all the stick all the way, it wasn't the carrot, it was the stick.

And he'd enter me for races and I'd say,

I'm going to go to somebody's birthday party and to the cinema,

he'd be like, "Oh, suit yourself," and he wouldn't really speak to me.

If I didn't do it, I felt like Alex was getting more attention

from my father than I was,

or somebody was, and I wanted it too, you know,

I wanted to have something in common with my dad,

and cycling's the only thing really that I have.

She was following Alex down the back in a sprint

when Alex was already going at probably as quick as he could go.

She basically moved out from behind him and overtook him

and moved in in probably about six lengths.

She just shot past him, just shot past him.

Everyone always used to say how smooth your riding was,

like we used to be able to see you

and you'd be completely smooth, like effortless,

-and I think you still look that way.

-Aw!

Especially when you compare yourself to some of your competitors.

And that's when I realised there was something a bit different.

I thought he was just saying that because he's my dad,

that's what dads do,

they have to say you're brilliant, and you go, yeah, whatever!

If he hadn't have pushed me at that age,

I wouldn't necessarily be here now, you know,

I wouldn't have stood out from the crowd.

I am grateful that it has given me

this fantastic opportunity to do something well.

Somebody's written on Twitter...

Lee, Lee, 16... hope that's not his age.

Anyway, "Good God, why do I like @V Pendleton so much?

"I don't even like cycling that much.

"If she asked me, I'd say I loved it." Dot dot dot!

Victoria's performances on the grass tracks

brought her to the attention of British cycling,

but she opted for university instead before turning professional in 2002.

When I started training with the team full-time,

the environment was not just a male environment,

it was a very, very highly successful male environment!

They had multiple Olympic, world, Commonwealth medallists,

they're not just the standard for the country

they're the standard for the whole entire world.

I did struggle for people to take me seriously.

I'm quite slight, and for a sprinter, that's quite unusual.

I can still vividly remember her walking past me

in her England skin suit, and I just looked at her physique at the time

and thought, "There's no way this girl's a sprinter."

We did have women cyclists, but they were quite...

um... for want of a better word,

without getting shot by anyone that ever sees this,

they weren't as feminine, let's just say, in their appearance, as Vicky.

I did used to wear mini-skirts sometimes with my GB top on the top,

and sparkly sandals and things, and the boys would be like,

"Oh my gosh, this girl cannot be serious."

No, shoot from there up!

There up!

'Quite a lot of women in the sport tend to take on a very masculine,

'aggressive look.'

They want to be perceived as being something strong and powerful.

I think I was quite comfortable, I never lost that sense

of being female and wanting to retain my femininity.

For me, I would never want to prove

that I'm taking it seriously by making myself look different

from the way I want to look.

'I wouldn't be myself.

'I'm going to win, I want to win, and I'm going to have nice long hair,

'I'm going to straighten it, curl it and it's going to look lovely!'

-Hi!

-How are you doing?

British cycling success on the world stage has been rewarded

with an influx of funding,

sponsorship and expertise at all levels.

In the preparation of the athletes, nothing is left to chance.

Do you not think that the fact that wheel thing is totally skwiff

on the base a little bit annoying?

Doesn't make any difference, but we can straighten it for you.

-That better?

-A little bit.

Victoria has now been training in Manchester

six days a week for the last ten years.

But it's hard to imagine that in 2003,

a year after she turned professional,

there wasn't someone who could guide

a British female sprinter learning her craft.

Victoria was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime,

a chance to be coached by eight-times world champion Frederic Magne

at a newly-established elite school of cycling.

-She was not, in French you would say...

-SPEAKS FRENCH

She really...step by step by step.

After the first two weeks in Switzerland, I honestly thought

I was going to drop dead.

I was so tired.

I just thought, how do people do this, I have no idea how to do this.

I was just like, they've got me wrong, I really haven't got it.

I'm wasting their time, their money.

I was having a bad time with Fred,

that really knocked my confidence a bit,

because he was getting a bit angry with me,

and I'm really someone who aims to please.

She probably said I'm a hard person,

because I want the best, I'm extremely demanding,

and my character is probably not an easy one, I'm not a flat person.

It got to a stage where I was really depressed.

Dave Brailsford decided to send Steve Peters out,

they were quite concerned.

He was the guy who had the expertise,

who could see reason from emotion.

It was a very special day. I mean, I cried, a lot!

She basically cried for two hours.

I listened in between the tears, and we got some kind of communication.

I asked her a few questions that were quite leading.

I feel like he had me and my character

absolutely nailed within seconds.

I was just like, "My gosh, this man can read minds!"

Vicky had no self-confidence,

she had no way of controlling impulsive thinking,

she had no way of containing emotion,

she didn't know how to deal with emotion,

she couldn't communicate well, she wasn't assertive.

The list went on and on.

Steve kind of started the ball rolling in saying,

"You can change the way you feel,

"if you're willing to put the work in,

"just like all the other training you do.

"You can change, if you are committed to it." This was a revelation.

Against the wishes of her coach in Switzerland, Victoria returned

to Manchester to train with the British team.

It was 2004, and she had just weeks to prepare for Athens,

her first Olympics.

I just wasn't ready for it.

The Olympic Games, it's just massive, and I felt like I was still...

in primary school stages of learning what it's about.

-COMMENTATOR:

-She hasn't got the power.

She was caught napping there, Pendleton.

And I was absolutely devastated,

because I felt I had really let myself and everybody around me down.

Not to mention letting Frederic Magne down.

As a coach, I was very low, and very down, like her.

I didn't see him coming, he told me it was my fault that

I had underperformed, because I should have stayed in Switzerland.

And because I was disrespectful to him,

it was my fault that everything was ruined.

And I was so, so upset,

I don't think I've ever cried so much in my entire life.

I just wanted to literally curl up in a corner and die.

Seeing Vicky go through what she was going through, for me,

she was in the wrong place. And being a cyclist wasn't for her.

I said, "If this is going to hurt you that much,

"I don't know why you're doing it, let's just call it a day.

"Just walk away from it."

And I said I was going to quit and that was it.

I was going to call it a day,

I didn't want to be mediocre at it, I wanted to be really good at it.

This is obviously emotion talking, I have to respect what she's saying,

but I want to make sure she's talking rationally.

And that's why I asked her if I went with her to Beijing

and supported her emotionally, and gave her these skills,

could we go for Beijing?

There was a little glimmer of light then,

where she said to me, "I would".

One of the things I will never know is how good I could have been.

We had this conversation time and time again. Stick with it.

At least you'll know,

you won't be like me for ever more thinking, can I?

Vicky was all about pleasing others. It was never about pleasing herself.

That's where she got a little bit lost.

She wanted to please her dad, please me.

I kept saying to her, you've got to do this for you,

it's not about anybody else, it's about you,

and I think she struggled with that.

But then again, if I hadn't gone to Athens and failed,

I don't think it would have given me

the fuel to really take the step and make a change about myself

and my life and my mental approach to be the best.

The London Velodrome was the first Olympic facility

to be officially opened.

It was a significant moment, placing the cycling team

at the heart of British hopes for gold medals.

When I started, there wasn't any media attention at all

in the team, anyway. Ever.

I'm talked out.

Probably got really bad red eye. Have I got really red eyes?

'Talking about the same stuff...

' "How are you going to go at the Olympics?"

' "Well, I'm going to do my best."

' "Do you feel the pressure?"

' "Yes." "Is that surprising?" '

And you want to go out on a high, I guess?

Yeah, hopefully on a high.

Being here's going to be on a high.

Doing well here would be a super-duper high.

"A super-duper high." Quote of the day.

In terms of dealing with all the external pressures,

I know that this is going to be the toughest challenge yet.

Not realising that a home Games is going to be bigger, harder,

would be very naive.

The London World Cup brings Victoria face-to-face with her archrival,

the Australian Anna Meares.

In the Beijing Olympics, Victoria crushed Meares to win gold.

But in 2011, Meares exacted revenge,

beating Victoria on her way to winning the World Championships

and the coveted rainbow jersey.

What can I say? Results-wise, over the years, absolutely fantastic.

She's been iconic in her field.

Greatness could have been bestowed upon Anna,

but Vicky was just too good.

There's definitely no love lost there in that relationship.

She races quite negatively in places and, you know, pushes riders about,

and is quite physical,

and that's just not the way that I choose to do things.

Now, I'd see that as very tactically aware.

Well, she said something to me along the lines of,

"I know we don't like each other very much,"

and I was like, "Who said that?

"I've never said that."

And I was like, "Well, that's clear you don't like me very much!"

This rivalry has intensified over the last few years,

and Meares is now world champion

in both the team and the individual sprint,

titles that Victoria held going into Beijing four years ago.

But I do believe I'm a better athlete than she is.

In qualifying, Victoria's 200-metre time trial

is cheered by the partisan crowd.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'A new fastest time for Pendleton and we have a new leader.'

But her time is superseded by the Australian.

'She's gone fastest so far the first time track.

'What's the time from Meares going to be as she hits the line?'

Both riders progress to the semi-finals,

where they meet in a best-of-three ride.

These three races will be the fastest series of three

in the history of female sprint cycling.

'Here comes another challenge from Pendleton, but she can't do it,

'so race one goes to Anna Meares, the defending world champion.

'And Pendleton will have to think about that.'

You couldn't hear it, but I was,

I was down the back straight going...

SHE GRUNTS

I was just trying to get everything I could out

because I knew she was coming.

'Pendleton has taken race two.'

'Well, it's going to go to a decider.'

It was a tough draw, meeting Anna Meares in the semi-final.

We both kicked the shit out of each other.

You can see that she felt the same today.

'The Australian is beginning to turn the throttle

'and Pendleton won't get up to her.

'And Meares wins through, 2-1.'

She tried her best.

Her body wasn't physically able to do it, at the end of the day.

Victoria has not beaten Anna in the individual sprint for two years,

but they will meet again in Melbourne in six weeks

at the World Championships,

one final battle before returning to the London Velodrome

for the Olympics.

Today is about going out on your bike with the girls, having a fun time.

KLAXON SOUNDS

ALL: Three, two, one, go!

In a bid to encourage more women to take up cycling

as a leisure pursuit,

Victoria has lent her support to Cycletta.

Today, 800 women will ride the 25-mile course.

ALL CHEER

'I hope I've helped inspire a few of these ladies

'to get on their bikes.'

Sharing the love of cycling.

-Victoria!

-Hello!

Lovely! Great stuff.

'I think it was a day well spent, to be honest.

'I might be a little tired tomorrow,'

and I might have to adapt my training slightly

'but I think it has been a really positive event.'

That's so lovely. Come here.

Oh, thanks. Thank you so much.

'It is nice that people do say,

"Oh, wow, we think you're amazing," or, "You're such an inspiration."

It's really touching, and quite unbelievable, actually.

And I find it, I think, more of a compliment from women.

'In the early days, there weren't many full-time women on the team.'

For a long time, it was just me and the boys.

You know, I was in awe of them.

So everyone always asks me,

"When do you think you realised you had potential?"

And I say, "When I became world champion in 2005,"

because that's how I honestly feel about it.

Before that day, I didn't think it was possible.

'Victoria Pendleton is really flying here.

'The world title is waiting for her.'

'Victoria Pendleton is the world sprint champion.'

'I finally felt like I belonged in that team.'

It was like a minimum entry requirement to the gang.

"Thank you, Dad, this one is for you. Lots of love, Victoria."

At the bottom, it says,

"Note, this is the original 2005 women's sprint."

I'd love to have worn one.

Cos the only time you get to wear one

is if you're entitled to wear one.

That win in 2005 was the start of Victoria's total dominance

of female track sprinting.

During the three years leading up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008,

Victoria would reign supreme.

'Whoa. Pendleton is the world champion.

'And she made it look so easy.

'And there's her dad, Max Pendleton.

'Happy moments in the Pendleton family.'

I was hitting new PBs and I knew, going into the competition, that,

"I have never been faster than this."

'Once more, she is the world champion.'

It was an incredible place to be.

And you hear athletes

talking about that one moment where they hit that amazing form.

'Victoria Pendleton,

'the queen of the track here. "I am in charge of the sprinters." '

There was like a triangle of coaching.

The three of them worked together to basically produce and manage

all the training programmes for the elite sprinters.

The three coaches were Iain Dyer,

the organiser of the training programmes,

Jan van Eiden, a master tactician,

and Scott Gardner,

widely considered to be track cycling's number one sports scientist.

Between those three, that was kind of a really stable

and very effective coaching environment.

They brought something to the programme that I don't think,

if they were ever to leave, would be replaced.

From the riders through the staff,

everyone kind of just knew their role

and when everyone walked into battle, it was a real united team.

That triangle of coaches, working under head coach Shane Sutton

and performance director Dave Brailsford,

combined to squeeze the maximum effort out of all the riders.

Victoria would totally dominate female sprinting,

winning five out of six world titles in the two years before Beijing.

Going into Beijing, she felt so confident.

She was basically untouchable.

One thing with Vicky is the more you do,

the more confident she feels

so we spent a lot of time on the boards,

in front of the laptop.

It was so close. There was nothing that could get in-between us.

But unknown to any of her coaches, in the months leading up to Beijing,

Victoria had fallen in love.

A personal journey of discovery that was to have devastating consequences

for the unity of the team.

-So tonight...

-Tonight on the menu is...

easy chicken night.

How long have we been eating easy chicken for? Years now.

'Scott's my wonderful Australian fiance.

'Scott and I were both like, "Yeah, I quite like you." "I like you too."

' "Do you think we have a chance at a relationship?"

' "I don't know. We have to give it a go to find out." '

We knew if we embarked on this then that would be the end.

One of us would have to leave the job.

You will want the recipe.

-It takes about five minutes to cook.

-And about two minutes to eat!

SHE LAUGHS

"Today is the greatest day I've ever known."

A line from the Smashing Pumpkins song, Today.

When I listen to it, it reminds me of those early days of getting to know somebody.

It kind of evokes a lot of emotion in me, I think.

And I think it always will.

I think it will always be close to my heart, so...

I could have had his name,

but I chose to put that, which is practically the same!

I'll put that on...

I first found out, way before Beijing.

It was something I noticed in the track centre.

Scott had bent down, Vicky was changing the gears,

and there was just something that, you know, I noticed.

And at the time, and I thought, "Hmmm, that's strange."

Well, he came in the room to see me and I said,

"I think you've got something to tell me".

Wow.

In sport, there are rules,

and there are rules on how you work with the team.

I knew there were consequences.

The bottom line is, you know, Scott broke protocol.

You don't get involved with the athletes.

Had the real Shane Sutton stepped up to the mark at that point,

I would have said for Scott to probably walk then.

But the problem is, he was adding so much value.

It was hard. It was hard.

It was one of those things, you can't deny love, I suppose!

And we fell in love, at work.

It was then, how do we manage that? It was a rock and a hard place.

You know, I can't really tell the other two coaches,

so I wanted to keep it all hush-hush.

Stay away from each other now until the Games are over

and then we can drive it forward.

But that was never going to happen.

They were in love. You know what it's like.

I was holding the cards there and I played the wrong cards.

COMMENTATOR: Great Britain are the Olympic Team Sprint champions!

I'd watched my fellow competitors

go up there and win gold medals before I got to the track.

It was just, gold, gold, gold. More gold!

On most days, I'm brought to tears, because I'm so happy, you know.

They've won and you see their faces and people getting emotional on the podium.

I can get emotional just thinking about it!

The team doing so well just pushed me further.

It was like, "I have to do this. I have to do it."

I felt unstoppable, "This is the best opportunity I've ever had."

"I've got one chance to get this right."

And I felt a huge, huge pressure to be part of the team.

She was a class apart. Nobody was going to get close to her.

She was majestic, she was fantastic.

She was unbeatable. I mean, she blew everybody away. Literally did.

It was very, very impressive to see.

No-one was even able to touch her there.

It was quite breathtaking, yeah. I have to say it.

She showed everyone exactly this is how fast I can go.

-COMMENTARY:

-Meares will not come back from this.

The magnificent display of confidence, power and speed.

The gold medal is yours.

Victoria Pendleton is the Olympic champion!

The moment I crossed the line, it was relief. Pure relief.

I've spoken about it on so many occasions

and it's easier to explain it as elation to people -

"Oh, you know, I was absolutely overwhelmed,

"it was the most amazing feeling on earth,"

but quite honestly I can say I didn't feel anything.

I felt almost numb.

And I thought, "Wow, I really thought this would feel different,"

like I'd suddenly be overwhelmed with emotion

and I wouldn't be able to hold it back.

But it felt like I wasn't even there.

It's hard to believe that I actually did it.

And the whole of the British team are stood to attention

in the middle of the arena here, showing their appreciation.

There were so many people that, you know,

had done so much good work for Vic over those years.

Everyone was just really emotional.

Later on that day, Shane told Jan about Vicky and myself

and that then turned into what I'd say at the time

wasn't a very pleasant situation to be in for any of us.

I was living a lie for whatever it was, I can't remember, six months.

Then I decided, you know, Scott was going

and I just pushed on with it.

The carnage left behind and the damage was massive.

You know, like, winning the gold medal

should've been like the happiest day of my entire life, you know,

like it worked and I won.

Ah, and it just wasn't, and then it was just completely...

It felt like the saddest day of my entire life.

Everyone was so angry with us

that, you know, Scott and I had fallen in love

because it was so unprofessional

and we were a disgrace and betrayed everybody.

Jan and Iain in particular felt quite betrayed by me.

And I never wanted to do that to anyone.

I never wanted anyone to feel that way.

Well, it stuck with me for quite a while.

You know, me and Scott, we lived together.

I thought we had a good friendship

and it's great for them that they did fall in love

and those things happen in life,

but Vicky's sometimes not the easiest,

and I've been sitting with Scott in the evening and talking about her

and he's basically seeing her.

I felt very disappointed that he never told me that.

Yeah, I think Scott having to leave the team

and everything he's, kind of, worked for with us,

for me was a really huge deal and I think I'll be, like, forever...

Oh, gosh. In his debt.

Sorry.

He's given up everything to be with me

and, you know, that means a lot.

That's why I need to do him proud at the London Olympics as well,

prove that it wasn't, you know, in vain or for no reason,

just that it was all worth it.

I'm kind of, not disregarded, but I'm... I dunno.

I'm not the favourite anyway, shall we say?

-ANNOUNCER:

-The gold medal is yours.

Victoria Pendleton is the Olympic champion.

Since Beijing, I'd say she's probably gone through a lot emotionally

that she would've welcomed to have left behind.

After Beijing, and with Scott no longer at the Velodrome,

Victoria cut an isolated figure,

her reputation as a defiant, but emotional maverick

laying her open to criticism within British cycling.

We, sort of, stopped working as close as we have done towards Beijing.

She went her own way, she, sort of,

started working on her own closely with Scott.

I was more, sort of, a facilitator.

The world title's on the line for Victoria Pendleton.

She has to get it right in this ride,

otherwise she will no longer be the world sprint champion.

And I think she just wanted to prove to everyone that this is working.

Victoria, you have earned that.

Four times the world sprint champion.

I just couldn't possibly imagine not having a world championship jersey.

And I just really didn't want to lose. I'm sorry.

She put on a very brave fight for a long time

and I think part of what you saw in that emotion

was her battle to keep going, to face up every day.

In 2010, Victoria won her fifth individual world title in six years,

but her constant battles were an emotional drain.

'And now she goes over to her boyfriend there.

'That's Scott, her fiance, who, of course,

'used to be on the development plan for cycling

'and then he went to the development plan from swimming.'

It's been a difficult time, it's been a really difficult time

and I can't say I'm going to look back

over the last three years fondly.

Because it hasn't been very lovely at times.

-Come on.

-Come on.

We didn't deal with it the best way

we could have dealt with it, I don't think.

Some of the coaching staff didn't deal with it very well.

A lot of in-fighting and hassle 24/7.

Unbearable working conditions.

There's been a lot of bloody tears.

I did feel at times that I was out on my own, like...

You know, I'd write my programme and then feel it was criticised

and then feel unconfident about it, and rather than going into work

and having a confidence boost from the people around you,

it was like a knock.

You just try and get on with it, and I come home and get upset with Scott.

I feel a clear responsibility to help her as much as I can,

and fortunately or unfortunately

I have the skills in this area

at the moment to help her as much as I can.

This is a girl who likes a team and she wants that team to love her.

They've got these phenomenally gifted people in all aspects

with this phenomenally gifted rider,

and there's nobody nasty or malicious in that team

and yet there's just a bit of conflict that's unresolved.

If that team comes together

and Vicky can also get strength from herself, you won't stop her.

You won't stop her. She'll go to London and she'll win again.

Good boy, come on.

In 2011, Victoria lost her World Championship title.

Beaten by Anna Meares, the veneer of invincibility was no longer.

It was clear that Victoria's dominance was over,

and that her set-up - training at a distance from the coaches

whilst Scott managed her programme from home -

would not produce victory at the Olympics.

As a consequence of my results at the Worlds,

it has kick-started a lot of cogs in motion to try and fix me,

fix what went wrong.

So, obviously, it has caused a bit of a stir

within the...within the GB camp.

The unthinkable began to be mooted within British cycling,

and in the summer of 2011, three years after he had to leave,

the call came for Scott to return to the fold,

a fully integrated part of Victoria's team.

I didn't feel that we... Scott should come back in,

but, at the end of the day, there's no-one else in this programme

that could win like Vicky could win, so, therefore, you know,

maybe we've had to accept defeat within victory, as it were.

But the choices have been made and we've got to go out

and support her and win that gold medal.

The information, the knowledge, the experience -

everything's within this team.

It just needs to click back in to the place

where it was prior to the last Olympics,

and it'll be amazing.

I'm really excited about him being back within the group.

I definitely feel a huge sense of reassurance with him being there

and being so closely involved, you know,

and that's what I need this year, more than anything.

Victoria's last competition before the Olympics

is looming on the horizon -

one final battle before the ultimate challenge.

It's very much felt like the last time I'll be doing so many things.

The idea of having Christmas next year

and being entirely guilt-free of training

is something quite unique!

Good stuff, Vic. One minute left.

I have an awful fear that when I start to do something else

I'll just be like, "Wow, I just don't feel right,

"I'm going to have to go back."

Don't look at me!

I feel like, finally, I'm in a place where I really think

we've got a good support system behind me,

and hopefully it's going to work out!

It's ages away, got ages.

LAUGHTER

'Jan and I are talking probably better than ever at the moment

'about where Vicky's going and what's happening.

'At the moment, Vicky's training better per average'

than she's ever trained before.

I had no idea how hard it was going to be to keep up with you.

-Same as me.

-I was like, uhhh...

Being disappointed with herself is a pretty day to day thing with Vic.

He let me win.

He wasn't playing with her, so...

'You know the good days,

'when she's saying it's rubbish but she's smiling.

'You know she feels like she's getting there.'

-I'd take it. Would you take it?

-I haven't got much choice, have I?

'Always rubbish, yeah. It's always rubbish.'

It's all I had.

I still think Jan backed off a little bit.

He wanted to leave me with a good feeling.

The World Championships -

Victoria's final competition before the Olympic Games in London.

At stake - the famous rainbow jersey,

and the title of world sprint champion.

Vicky is definitely motivated by the fact that

this is her last shot at it.

She's seen them all, she's raced against them all.

She needs to realise that

there are no aliens coming to ride on the track.

She will make sure that every time she goes to the line

she's totally focused and she's totally in the zone,

and there's no-one better at that in the world

if she's convinced herself of that.

Australia are the leading nation in the world, at this current stage.

They've won't want to let the Brits ahead of them.

The magnitude of Victoria's challenge became clear

when Anna Meares broke the world record in qualifying.

In the early rounds, Meares was dominant,

Pendleton unconvincing.

They're all as vulnerable as each other as characters

if they're out of their comfort zone.

But Victoria battled through to the semi-final,

where she would face Anna Meares.

-ANNOUNCER:

-What a night it will be. Strap yourselves in.

First event, the much talked-about women's sprint semi-finals.

World record holder yesterday, Anna Meares -

she's on the form of her life.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Pendleton looks as though she's going to lead

this one out from the front. Yep, fully committed.

Now Pendleton needs to get that high leg speed

to ward off the challenge of Meares.

Meares starting to come on to the shoulder now,

but Pendleton's working really hard, trying to hold off Meares...

Oh! Down the finishing straight there's a crash there!

Meares wins race one.

So committed to get to the line first,

and they were absolutely on top speed.

-Oh, it's actually Pendleton.

-Yeah.

Just came out of the sprint line and it wasn't Anna Meares' fault.

And how shook up is Victoria Pendleton?

-SCOTT:

-If they stopped everything now

and called the Olympics today, I'd put my money on Vic.

I just know what sort of competitor she is

when she really wants something.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Can Victoria Pendleton - Queen Victoria -

can she win race two and force this to a decider?

Well, she's putting the bruises and soreness behind her,

and she must be sore after that fall.

Here we go, then.

Meares is starting to lead this one out,

here comes a challenge from Pendleton.

Can Pendleton get round Meares, as they come into the finishing straight?

No, she's sat up.

Meares clenches her fist, 2-0, and going into the final.

Interesting there, to see how the judges view that.

When the sprint is launched, you have to stay inside the line.

Well, we can see here that the sprint is well underway,

and Anna Meares drifts quite well outside there...

-Oh, yes, nearly a collision.

-..and puts her opponent off tracks.

There's a change, and Meares has been relegated

and Pendleton has been awarded the victory in race two.

So, we are going to get a decider.

The atmosphere here, electric.

It's slow now.

Ooh! Meares has gone for the inside position,

and you said you would've liked to have seen Pendleton

riding this one from the front.

It's the bell, one lap to go, the winner will go into the final.

Oh! They almost clashed again there!

Now then, Meares still watching where Pendleton is.

Here we are, half a lap to go, Meares has now committed herself,

here comes the reaction from Pendleton,

five times a world champion from Great Britain.

I reckon Pendleton's going to do it! Oh!

I think Meares may have got it, it's going to be a photo finish.

It's showing Victoria Pendleton on the screen,

But it was very, very close, indeed.

So, she's beaten Meares 2-1, and look at Jan van Eiden's face!

Well done, Vicky! >

That was super.

Woo! Well done, Vic!

Well, psychologically, Chris,

that is going to be a fantastic bonus for Pendleton.

This reminded me of when they first used to ride against each other,

and she used to try and rough her up,

and I think that was exactly the wrong thing to do here.

You can see Victoria Pendleton's face,

and she was not going to let that one go.

Out of the saddle and asking for more speed.

Shoulder to shoulder there, into the finishing straight.

I think Pendleton got the better of that encounter.

She's fired up for it. Pendleton takes race one.

We're down the back straight, and Krupicite has committed herself.

And Pendleton is coming up onto the shoulder.

This is Victoria Pendleton in imperious form,

Showing that she's going to win the crown of her life.

Oh! I don't think she's done it!

It looks like Krupicite took race two.

Well, amazing news just coming through here.

Krupicite has actually been relegated.

-She didn't hold her line...

-Hence the relegation.

And it means that Victoria Pendleton is now

the world sprint champion for the sixth time.

APPLAUSE

And I just lost my balance and veered into her a bit.

My dad always said you don't do track cycling

unless you're prepared to crash because it happens now and again.

Mentally and emotionally I wavered a bit tonight.

I paid for it, unfortunately.

-It was a great ride, the last ride, to win it.

-Thank you very much.

'The only thing that really matters to me

'is going well in London, that's it.

'That's all that matters. That's all I'm trying to do.'

In position.

All right, shoulder back.

-Here we go.

-Thanks.

-I'm ready, Scott.

-Ready, coming.

The public can be reassured,

there's no way she won't give her best.

This girl is a fighter, she'll never give up.

-What was wrong with that one, otherwise?

-Very little.

I don't know, you just looked really displeased, your face.

I thought it was really good.

-OK.

-Yeah, good.

'Very, very proud of what she's achieved.

'She'll always be an Olympic champion.'

She's done this team, her nation and this sport,

you know, absolutely proud.

That's better.

I don't think I've learned anything, really, in ten years.

Still crying. Still crying!

-Still winning.

-Still winning, that's good.

I'm going to give up crying after the Olympics, I've decided.

I'm going to give it up forever.

And then it's finished, yeah.

It's going to be very strange, not having the training programmes

and the rules and regulations.

I'll probably have to make up some of my own to live by.

I probably will.

'Housework by... Pack lunches made at...

'Yeah, it probably will end up a bit like that.'

I think beyond the Olympics, a lot.

'And it's important to, I think, because the day after the Olympics,

'the world ain't going to stop.'

And I hope that we can say together,

"Shit, yeah, we did that."

Win, lose or draw, we had a go at that and we gave that our best shot.

If we can do that, then, God, I'm going to be so happy.

'The jump speed was 49.2.'

Bang on.

The idea of running away with Scott and living happily ever after -

that makes me happy.

I still like the idea of happy endings like that.

I want it to be the most amazing exit

that I could possibly have from the sport,

and say, "Thank you very much, and now I'm done."

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