Olympics: Pendleton's going for gold
Stotfold cyclist Victoria speaks ahead of her Olympic bid
According to the song there are nine million bicycles in Beijing.
China has always been famed for its cycling-mad population and for the next two weeks a few hundred more will be rolling on Asian soil as the Olympic Games finally begin.
However, for us right here in Bedfordshire there is just one pair of wheels we are interested in looking out for.
Victoria Pendleton, the girl from Stotfold, has made it all the way to the very top of her sport. She's not just a good cyclist. She's great. She's a world champion cyclist several times over.
Neither is she just any old member of the Great Britain Cycling team, currently the highest ranked in the world – she's its biggest star.
Now Victoria's date with destiny is drawing ever closer – the date that
continued inside has been looming on the horizon since her first Olympics appearance in Athens four long years ago.
On Sunday, August 17 she enters the Women's Sprint competition and the nation will be crossing its fingers that two days later she can land the gold medal.
She goes into the games in the form of her life and number one in the world in her field.
Victori, 27, has won the Women's Sprint in the World Track Championships three years out of the past four - finishing second in 2006 - and has backed that up with World Championship Gold in the Team sprint, twice, and the Kieren.
She is the leader of the pack in all three disciplines - although disappointlingly just one of these, the Women's Sprint, is included in the Olympic programme giving Victoria just one chance of a medal.
Victoria was philosophical about that when the Chronicle, alongside the nation's media, caught up with her at the team's training camp at Newport in Wales a fortnight ago.
"There is only one of these events in the Olympics, and it's the hadest of the three because it's a very physical and mental event," Victoria explained.
"It carries the most prestige, if it was a different event it wouldn't be quite as special.
"You only have one chance to get this right and if you make the wrong decision, it's all over. You can lose it on a simple tactical error.
"You can't do the perfect ride, it is the person who makes the least mistakes who will win. It is a risky event.
"However, I go in as reigning world champion and I am going into a competition knowing I have beaten everybody else."
Since her Olympic debut in Athens - she finished ninth, after admitting to being underprepared for the whole Olympic extravaganza - Victoria's performances on the track have improved dramatically, with the mindset being as important as anything else.
"In the past the majority of my problems have been through my perspective, how important it is, and putting too much pressure on myself," she said. "Since Athens I have reappraised my goals and objectives as a person.
"I feel a lot happier, I am less anxious, no-one puts pressure on me.
Of course, the improvement is not just down to that. It takes time through training, it takes years odf practice, and skill, to achieve that.
"Because I am happier in myself, I can deal with the media and the press. Whatever anybody says or writes about me, I know I can only do what I can do."
Success at Beijing would be the crowning glory in an amazing 18 months for Stotfold's finest that has catapulted her into the media spotlight. Since landing three gold medals at the World Championships in Mallorca, she was crowned Sportswoman of the Year at two national awards in December.
That was followed up in March with two more golds and a silver at the championships in Manchester.
Ahead of that Victoria showed she had nothing to hide when she imitated the Annie Leibovitz portrait of Lance Amrstrong - appearing nude on her bike on the front cover of Observer Sport Magazine.
In that interview she recalled how her father Max, also a cyclist, first helped her clamber aboard a bike at the age of six, and she competed with her twin brother Alex.
That competitive streak continued in all sports through her school years - first at St Mary's Lower in Stotfold, then Etonbury Middle in Arlesey and later Fearnhill in Letchworth.
Once she had completed a sports science degree at Northumbria University in 2002 she took up cycling full time.
Now most of her year is spent training in Manchester, home of the Great Britain Cycling Team, or competing in events but her family and friends remain in Stotfold - and will be willing her all the way to success this month.
Related links:
Victoria Pendleton: official website
British Cycling
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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