Victoria Pendleton: 'If I overtake a man I will hear a rapid crunching of gears'
The former track cyclist shares an anecdote on the everyday sexism she encounters on the road
Two-time Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton has shared a humorous anecdote highlighting the everyday sexism she encounters as a cyclist, with male riders she passes out on the road refusing to believe they could have been overtaken and speeding up to try and accelerate past her.
"The way I appear has changed so much in the last few years, and to be perfectly honest, I rarely get recognised. I think I am quite nondescript...which is no bad thing. It allows me to be a chameleon which I enjoy," she wrote in an Instagram post.
"If I’m out about on my road bike and I overtake a man for example...I will hear a rapid crunching gears as they try to 'make amends for it,' occasionally combined with a mumbling of 'I must have been daydreaming'...like they need an excuse! Usually followed with a pedal-mashing (usually short-lived) stomp back past me."
The 39-year-old says these instances don't necessarily bother, her and that she finds them amusing.
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"It doesn’t bother me I think it’s funny," she said. "I’ve always been underestimated because of the way I look....one day I want to be intimidating..."
Pendleton took gold in the Sprint event at the 2008 Beijing Games, before doubling her gold medal tally four years later in the Keirin at the London Games.
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The 2012 Olympics also saw the Brit set a new Olympic record of 10.724 seconds in the Sprint qualifiers, although she was controversially relegated in the first run in the final against Anna Meares, eventually earning a silver medal, which would be her final competition before retiring from professional cycling.
Since then, Pendleton switched pedal power for literal horse power, becoming a jockey and achieving a fifth-placed finish at the 2016 Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham.
Then, in 2018, she was forced to abandon an Everest ascent with TV presenter Ben Fogle when she experienced hypoxia, caused by a lack of oxygen.
Following this, she was diagnosed with depression and had contemplated suicide before seeking help from British Cycling psychiatrist Steve Peters among others.
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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.
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