As the track cycling World Cup opened at the Manchester Velodrome, Great Britain made a flying start as sprint world champion Victoria Pendleton once again showed her dominance of the event.
However it was not the polished performance we have come to expect from Pendleton, who is also Olympic sprint champion. She needed all three matches to get past Olga Panarina and Shueng Guo in the semi final and final respectively and was visibly disappointed with herself.
She said: “Today has been a bit of a wake up call I think. I feel very annoyed with myself for my lack of tactical expertise in the world champion’s jersey.”
“My tactics were shocking today. It was a big shock to the system because, physically, I have good legs but I just made it very hard for myself.
“Today has been a bit of a wake up call I think. I feel very annoyed with myself for my lack of tactical expertise in the world champion’s jersey.”
The Stotfold born rider is now preparing for the 500m time trial tomorrow and the keirin, which she will compete in on Sunday.
“I find the keirin is not quite as stressful to compete in [as the sprint]," she added, "and I quite enjoy it so I am looking forward to trying to do a better job of that.”
In Day Two of the World Cup (Saturday), Jessica Varnish and Rebecca James will hope to complete a sprint double for Great Britain in the team event and Lizzie Armitstead will hope her points race is better than her scratch, where she failed to claim a medal.
Wendy Houvenaghel also competes in the individual pursuit, in which she is Olympic silver medallist.
