See you in London! Pendleton proves she
is wheel deal against rival for Olympic gold

By Jonathan McEvoy
PUBLISHED: 10:05, 6 April 2012 | UPDATED: 19:07, 6 April 2012

There are moments when Victoria Pendleton seems fit for the psychiatrist’s couch. At other times, she is capable of picking it up and snapping it in two.
On Friday, it was a case of the latter, with a display of mental fortitude that defied a crash, bruises and uncompromising riding from her bitterest rival, the Australian Anna Meares.
After further twists and turns of controversy, Pendleton’s reward was a ninth world gold medal of an astonishing career. No wonder she dissolved into tears and sank to her knees on learning the news.
Perhaps more movingly, the drama finally brought a level of mutual respect between Pendleton and Meares after six years of acrimony that began with the Australian’s roughhouse tactics during a race in Bordeaux.
The story begins with the first race of their best-of-three women’s sprint semi-final. Pendleton, who has made no secret of questioning her own mental state ahead of this summer’s Olympics, was battling to maintain her lead as the pair charged down the finish straight, wheel to wheel.
Her right elbow caught Meares’s left, which spells perdition at nudging 40mph. Pendleton duly clattered to the ground and Meares, the defending title-holder, completed the win.
British Cycling staff attended to the stricken Olympic champion at the rim of the track, her racing suit with holes burned in it. But, mercifully, she was back on her feet after a couple of minutes and straight on to the warm-down bike, her face a picture of calm concentration. Only grazes to her right shoulder and elbow betrayed the drama that had just unfolded. A hip injury was concealed from view.
So on to the second race half an hour later, as if nothing had happened. More high-speed theatre ensued. Meares won comfortably but this time she veered above the red sprinters’ line — which is forbidden once the cat-and-mouse tactics have given way and the sprint has started for real — on the final bend and the result was overturned. It was 1-1.


The decider came down to a dive for the line and a photo finish. After all the pain and endurance, Pendleton’s victory was measured in little more than an inch.
Next up, the final. It pitted Pendleton, 31-year-old Olympic champion from Bedfordshire, against Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaite.
The Briton won the first race without any great fuss. 1-0. Then, she appeared to lose the second race. But seeing was not always believing here last night. The judges intervened again. Krupeckaite was disqualified for first leaving the aforementioned red line going into the final bend and then using her elbows in the frenetic closing stages.
The judgement was announced over the loudspeakers. That was when the tears started. Some of the crowd booed.
Meares, though, delivered a wonderfully sporting assessment. Her eyes moist, she said: ‘I saw Vicky’s fall. I heard it. I felt it. That just goes to show Australia and the world that she can pick herself up and dust herself off — and she’s a great champion for that.
‘It was extremely hard fought. There was no harm in the first race and no harm in the second. I do not feel aggrieved in any way.’ Pendleton was all smiles after the tears. ‘This is the last world championships I’ll do and it makes it the most emotional, certainly since the first one I won,’ she said. ‘I felt silly slipping over. But as my dad said, you don’t do the sport if you’re not prepared to crash now and again.’



Pendleton had previously talked of suffering nightmares in which she would be visited by a monster with 2012 written all over it. Perhaps her dreams were sweeter last night, her hopes for the Olympics higher. But Meares is not finished. ‘I think this is a book that hasn’t finished being written yet,’ she said. ‘The big dance is in London.
‘I know that she’ll be in amazing form. It’s tit for tat. I won at the London World Cup a few months ago; she won in Melbourne. If we’re going on that pattern, it’s my turn next. But I do feel very proud that I have a rival who, in the end, I have to work with to raise the bar of women’s sprinting — especially in my country where it’s not that high-profile — and to be great role models for young kids and young women who have stereotypical images thrown in their faces that aren’t ideal.
‘We are two very strong, very powerful, very independent women and we are very proud of that.’
The rivalry goes on, just in a new spirit of respect if not friendship.
Meanwhile, after a patchy route into the semi-finals, Sir Chris Hoy faces his room-mate Jason Kenny in the men’s sprint on Saturday. The winner will be favourite to gain selection for Britain’s one Olympic place.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2126021/Victoria-Pendleton-wins-cycling-gold-crashing-semi-final.html#ixzz1rR7KpI6b