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Olympian Heights

Cycling champion turned amateur jockey Victoria Pendleton talks motivation, mental health – and keeping her cool on Everest

WORDS MARY-JANE WILTSHER PHOTOGRAPHER DANNY CRAVEN FASHION EDITOR DEBORAH LATOUCHE HAIR AND MAKE-UP CHARLOTTE CROMER

On an ice-cold day in February, Victoria Pendleton is late Where do you go after achieving that rarefied level of for our interview – because she’s helping to get her friend’s success? Unsurprisingly, Queen Vic, now 37, has used car out of a bog. “It’s fitting, I spend most of my free time her ‘retirement’ as an opportunity to master new disciplines, in wellies,” the Olympic cycling champion subsequently pushing her body in unfamiliar directions with a series of tells me, laughing. We reschedule for later that day, but physical challenges that includes Strictly, surfing retreats the mental image chimes with our Lara-Croft-meets- in Morocco and Costa Rica, and – most unexpectedly – Brown-Owl shoot at the PHOENIX studio a few weeks training to become a fully-fledged amateur jockey in just earlier, which saw Pendleton buttoned into Bond-girl tai- one year. The Switching Saddles project, funded by Bet- loring and shirts peppered with scout-style applique fair, culminated in the Foxhunters Chase at Cheltenham patches. Opportunities to dress up are, she says, com- in 2016, where Pendleton crossed the finish line in fifth pensation for spending her formative years “sweating in place. No small feat given that, prior to taking on the chal- the gym, dressed like a boy” – a welcome antidote to all lenge, she hadn’t so much as sat on a horse. those tri-colour tracksuits. Pendleton’s latest expedition, though, quite literally pres- It’s over five years since ’s golden girl (who ents the mother of all obstacles. This May, she and TV rode her first race aged 9, spurred on by her successful presenter will join forces in an attempt to scale amateur cyclist father, Max) retired from professional cy- Mount Everest, battling 200mph winds to navigate treach- cling. Her stratospheric career took her to the 2008 Olym- erous ridges and icy rock faces before ascending to the pics in Beijing, where she scooped gold, and the top 848 metres known as the ‘death zone’. “My family London Olympics 2012, where she won gold and think I’m crazy,” laughs Pendleton. “Although, in many ways sprint silver. By the time she bowed out in 2012, Pendleton they’re not surprised.” had a staggering nine World Championship golds to her name. A bona fide athlete, she’s one of Britain’s most Training began last year, with the pair spending three iconic sportswomen. weeks climbing some of the biggest peaks in Bolivia’s La

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Shirt DSQUARED2 Paz under the supervision of the improbably Suit JOSHUA KANE Rings VICTORIA’S OWN named British mountaineer Kenton Cool, who “I did some skills training has summited Everest 12 times. “I did some skills training in the Alps too, learning rescue in the Alps too, learning techniques, rope knots, getting used to walk- ing with crampons,” says Pendleton. As it rescue techniques, rope transpired, moving in slow motion proved more problematic than altitude sickness for the knots, getting used to adrenaline junkie. “Really low-level, monoto- nous discomfort is how I’d describe it. It’s not walking with crampons.” pain, it’s not maximal effort. The most difficult part is being able to mentally deal with that unsatisfying speed of movement. I’m someone who moves quite rapidly, so I found it hard to take everything slower – every move has to be considered.”

Has she found a kindred spirit in fellow adven- turer Fogle? “Oh, Ben is a natural endurance athlete, physically and mentally. I really think it’s in his DNA.” The duo plan to complete the climb in just four weeks, rather than the aver- age six, but Pendleton is quick to point out that they “won’t be rushing up there – some- thing as small as a cold in your system means you don’t climb, so you’ve got to be aware of your body. Being an athlete, that’s something I’m familiar with.”

It’s that same awareness that Pendleton drew of (thigh-burning) fire. “The first horse they put are very minimal. Here I’m dealing with an on, three years earlier, when the offer to train me on was this ex-eventer champion horse, animal with a brain of its own. Each horse is with Betfair’s Switching Saddles programme which looked to me enormous! They pulled it different – some headstrong, some compliant. came her way. Taking on a brand new sport out the stables and I was like, ‘How do I even That’s a real thrill.” in a very public arena was an interesting move get up there?’” for the decorated cyclist, and one she knew When she isn’t up a mountain, Pendleton can would provoke a certain amount of criticism Within a couple of lessons of bouncing around be found out in the Oxfordshire countryside, from the racing community. In the end, dis- on a lunge-line, working out “how on earth to walking her Dobermans and riding the two secting the task (right down to the relevant do a rising trot”, Pendleton was hooked. “There’s ex-National Hunt horses that she’s currently muscle groups) helped make up her mind. “I such an adrenaline rush from being onboard a retraining to be eventers. The Switching Sad- thought, well, I’ve got good balance as I’ve thoroughbred,” she says, changing tempo with dles challenge has clearly gifted her with a been wobbling around on skinny tyres most genuine excitement. “You can feel the power full-blown love affair, a sport where she of my life, I’ve got strength in my quads, which and energy, and that connection with an animal “doesn’t feel the same pressures” as cycling is important as a jockey, and I’d love to be able of that calibre is something that gets me in the and can “share the load” in a partnership. But to ride,” she says. “I’ve dealt with pressure, heart – I can’t explain, I could be sick sometimes when I ask if she wishes she’d discovered I’m trainable. Physically there was no reason, and still be overjoyed at how much fun it is! It’s horse riding sooner, Pendleton’s mood chang- and mentally there was no reason.” like an extension of your body.” es, suddenly serious. “If you’d asked me to ride horses in my early twenties, I couldn’t Team GB eventing coach Yogi Breisner, an She recalls the Foxhunter Chase itself as “one have done it. I didn’t have the strength, I would Olympic silver medallist for Sweden, super- of the greatest experiences” of her life. Was have doubted myself from the start.” vised Pendleton’s training. The pair clicked it on a par with the Olympic velodrome? “Oh, instantly (“he was very patient, really excep- it goes beyond that, it’s nature,” she says, That sentence encapsulates one of the most tional” ) though the first lessons were a baptism without skipping a beat. “In track, the variables interesting things about Pendleton, which is

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This page and opposite page Three-piece suit and pocket watch chain JOSHUA KANE Shirt DSQUARED2 Rings VICTORIA’S OWN

the extreme contrast at the core of her: the almost superhuman in fitness, and that is an When her siblings quit racing, Pendleton was The image resonates long after our interview, Today, Pendleton is passionate about improv- award-winning Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. sheer force of her drive, and the deep well of incredible experience, but it comes paired “the last man standing” and in her mind the despite her brightly cheerful response when ing mental health awareness in sport, not just “The retreats are run by a friend of mine, and her emotional vulnerability. She has often with an immense amount of mental pressure.” duty fell to her to carry on the baton. “At the I ask if she’d do it all again: “Oh, one hundred in the arena, but on a global when she told me about them I thought they commented that she didn’t fit the Olympian worst stages, I felt like I couldn’t quit, even percent. With time everything fades – the pain level. She is especially interested in how we sounded amazing. I was a scout growing up mould, something she puts down to her ten- Deep-rooted in those pressures is Pendle- though I wasn’t sure if it was for me when I fades, the intensity fades. It’s strange, when I can minimise the psychological impact of re- and used to love going on the holidays – climb- dency to wear her heart on her sleeve. The ton’s relationship with her father, Max, who got to my teens…” watch now, I find it hard to imagine tirement on people in sport. “There definitely ing, potholing, canoeing. They were perfect, soaring highs of her cycling career were we circle back to a number of times during that I ever did it. It almost feels like a dream.” needs to be some kind of support system in and this sounded similar, all with like-minded matched by some dark, crushing lows, with our interview. Cycling was part of the fabric That undercurrent of responsibility stayed with place to enable people to move on,” she says. women.” her self-confidence crippled by the “huge of the sports star’s childhood, and some of her, right up to the London Olympics in 2012. But do it she most certainly did, and now re- “Athletes are kind of institutionalised – they’ve insecurities surrounding performance” that her most vivid childhood memories are of When I ask Pendleton to describe the reality tirement has given Pendleton the time and lived in that environment all their lives, and then And for her next trick? “A motorsport angle is she suffered throughout her twenties, and learning to ride in tandem or racing with her – and physicality – of competing in her capital space to shed the weight of all those expec- it’s taken away. You’re left thinking, ‘What do I what I’m looking for,” she says, without pausing Pendleton has spoken openly about her strug- older brother and sister. “I thought everyone city, with the eyes of the world on her, she paints tations, though the experience has proved a do now?’” for breath. “I’m trying to get my motorcycle li- gles with mental health while training – strug- did what we did,” she says. “I had no idea, a darkly vivid picture: “There was a moment double-edged sword. When your sense of cense sorted, maybe do a little off-roading... gles that led her to self-harm in the lead up aged six, that it wasn’t the norm. My dad was where I lay on the floor before the final of the self-worth and identity is so bound up in your Luckily for Pendleton, there’s little danger of I’d try any sport out there, given half the chance.” to the Beijing Olympics. quite intimidating to the other riders, I think. kierin, looking at the ceiling, and I will never performance, giving up the latter feels like being left at a loose end. Between mountain- He’d turn up and they’d say, ‘look, Max is here’. forget the way I was feeling. I wanted the world jumping over a precipice. “Suddenly, that’s all eering and riding, she’s keen to build on the For Victoria Pendleton, retirement is shaping “I’ve always been honest about the way I feel, I wanted to have that effect on people, I was to swallow me up. I cannot explain to you the gone, and you’ve got whatever’s left,” is her skills she’s learned on the surf retreats hosted up to be one long, extreme scout holiday. Let’s and there have been many moments of self- in awe of that.” amount of pressure that you’re trying to contain stark summary. by all-female collective Mad To Live, and is face it, she’s earned those badges. doubt,” she says. “I know what it’s like to feel in your body, behind this calm exterior.” currently nose-deep in William Hills’

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