December 19, 2012
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Between The Lines
I am reviewing the autobiography Between The Lines by Victoria Pendleton which is excellent. Victoria won gold medals for cycling at the last 2 olympics. She’s british and was regarded as our best chance of a gold medal at the last one. At the London Olympics despite breaking the world record she got disqualified in a qualifying round in the team pursuit because she and Jess her partner overtook each other at the wrong point. She still won the single events but for Jess her Olympics was over. She was very young and not at her peak and while Victoria has now retired, Jess is considered a prospect at later Olympics. Victoria was very thin as a child and had a hard time convincing anyone she could be a top cyclist. A lot of people told her to try the endurance events because traditionally sprint cyclists are very muscular. She also craved attention from her dad who would go on long cycle rides with her brother and would only take her along sometimes. Her mum didn’t like the idea of her cycling on a velodrome as a child because it was dangerous. Whilst training as a professional cyclist she also did a honours degree in Sports Science. This helped no end in her training. As a child she was very self conscious of how thin she was and it’s interesting that nowadays she often appears in mens magazine and has even done some nude shots. Currently she wants to become a catwalk model and has stopped weight training & has been losing weight in a bid to do this.
