Pendelton unfazed over disappointing World Championships return

Victoria Pendleton is unfazed after returning home from the Track Cycling World Championships without a gold medal and believes the work she has done this season will pay dividends at the Olympics.

Great Britain completed the penultimate World Championships before London 2012 in Holland yesterday with one gold, three silver and five bronze medals.

Olympic champion Pendleton - eight times a world champion - won silver in the team sprint alongside Jessica Varnish and bronze in the individual sprint, relinquishing the title she had held since 2007.

Pendleton has long insisted she is working on a two-year programme with London in mind, sacrificing speed to build strength to be at her peak in 16 months’ time.

And she said: “I’m very confident it was the right decision to make and I spent some time doing some very basic strength work this year.

“It did take away the speed and I knew it would, you have to step back in order to move forward. I’m very confident that next year what I gain this year will come through. I’ve done it in the past and I can do it again.”

Pendleton knows her results will be questioned, but did not anticipate an abundance of success.

“I know there’s a lot of expectation on me and that’s where the pressure stems from, fundamentally,” she added. “I didn’t come in here with the same expectation on myself, I said I’d sacrifice this year for the Olympics anyway.

“It’s been difficult. I’ve been a bit frustrated with myself in some respects; I just feel a bit flat. I’ve got to give myself a break.”

However, motivation was also an issue in Apeldoorn.

Pendleton added: “London 2012 is so off the scale it’s quite difficult to really get geed up for these competitions.

“I do find it really tough to get up for even the World Championships - everyone’s like ‘This one doesn’t matter, what matters is 2012’.

“I feel the same. Everything has moved down a rung. The worlds feel like a World Cup, the World Cups feel like a nationals and the nationals might as well be a Thursday track league.

“I just feel a bit flat this year with it all and I think it is because the Olympics are getting so much closer and the expectation and pressure relies on that one event.

“This (the World Championships) doesn’t really change my life, the Olympics could.”