Victoria Pendleton, one of Britain’s greatest athletes, has often felt like a failure and a fraud despite her achievements. She reflects on her Olympic golds, the accompanying misery, and the joy she has discovered since retiring.
Today, Pendleton is driving us to the stables in Dorset to visit her two horses, Vesper and Sarah. She carries two bags: one filled with her cycling gold medals, the other with carrots and apples. She jokes about feeding the medals to the horses, and you get the sense she wouldn’t mind doing it.
When asked about her greatest sporting achievement, Pendleton points to an event post-retirement. After only a year of riding, she competed at Cheltenham in 2016, finishing two and a half lengths behind the legendary Nina Carberry in the Foxhunter Chase. The elation she felt then surpassed her Olympic triumphs. “In some ways, it meant more because it was totally unexpected. With a live animal, you never know what will happen. All I had was my courage – my balls and balance, and nothing else,” she explains.
Pendleton, 43, is still super-fit and exudes a gutsy, funny, and no-nonsense attitude. Today, she’s dressed in black tracksuit bottoms and a black top, driving her little black sports car. But when she talks about her struggles as a track cyclist, she reveals a different, more vulnerable side.
At the stables, Pendleton is in her element, interacting with Vesper, a black gelding, and Sarah, a chestnut mare. She breathes in the scent of their coats, saying, “They smell heavenly to me. There’s something special about the connection between humans and horses. They are such magnificent, generous animals, allowing you to ride them and giving their all when racing. It makes me so happy.” When asked if they have more soul than a bike, she enthusiastically agrees, “Yeah!”
Pendleton’s horse-racing success came after her final Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the keirin and a silver in the sprint at London 2012. Although Laura Kenny has since surpassed her with five Olympic golds, Pendleton was Britain’s best-known female cyclist at the time. To the public, it seemed she retired in a blaze of glory, but she felt deeply disappointed for not winning three gold medals at the London Olympics.
Despite her outstanding accomplishments, Pendleton struggled with feelings of inadequacy during her cycling career. Now, in the world of horse racing and beyond, she has found a new sense of fulfillment and joy.
