Victoria won the European Keirin title in Apeldoorn on Sunday 23rd October. It was reported: The Olympic sprint champion's resurgence gave her two gold medals out of three events and was the high point of a third day's racing during which Great Britain more than doubled their gold medal tally with a clean sweep of four golds in four events entered, Matt Crampton emulating Pendleton, and Laura Trott and Ed Clancy adding golds in the men's and women's omnium to leave Great Britain with a medal tally of seven golds out of the 10 Olympic disciplines. The keirin is not usually Pendleton's strongest event but she came out fighting to tackle all three rounds in identical style, controlling the pace from the front in the manner that has become indelibly associated with Sir Chris Hoy. It was a new Pendleton: strength and power rather than speed, perhaps a foretaste of what she and her coaches have been working towards in the past few months. "In the final Pendleton kept a cool head, opting for last place in the string behind the motorbike, moving forward at three laps to go, getting the slipstream of the German Kristina Vogel and making her final effort just before the bell. She overhauled Vogel in the back straight and held off the challenge of the Frenchwomen Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez up the finish straight, with an emphatic winning margin of a bike length and a half. "I've been doing a lot of strength work, focusing on seated efforts, longer efforts, two laps or so, I didn't do much else because of my shoulder, and that was what paid off today," she said. She has been suffering from bursitis in her shoulder in recent months and said on Saturday that the biggest challenge was not riding her bike but manoeuvring herself into her skintight racing suit." Well done Victoria, it’s a pleasure to work with you! report by HITC
