Victoria Pendleton: corrosive culture forced me out of cycling

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Most probably thank that my Twin is nothing like me
Cant remember when we last met.
The name thing probably wears off later in life, it gets less personal, but wanting to rib someone is just call them by a different name
A lot of people don't even like their first name and use their second.
Havent listened to the 5live yet, still catch up the Olympics.

Not sure what direction she is going at the mo?
Now Wiggo is another story.............

[thirdcrank]

Anna Meares has been mentioned and that set me wondering what's special about Australian coaches? Perhaps my impression that the nation is sports mad has helped that country's sporting prowess. One of my nephews had a spell working in Australia and playing semi-professional rugby league. Back in England, he was visited by some of his Aussie chums and when I called, they were all watching the telly. Tongue very much in cheek, I expounded my "theory" that TV is not broadcast in Australia, but that a long series of truly awful programmes - Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, Flying Doctor, Neighbours, Home and Away, Prisoner Cell Block H, along with the likes of Jake the Peg and Dame Edna have been used in a cunning plot to convert British youth into couch potatoes.

Continuing on the rugby theme, but the other code, anybody who spent a couple of hours in a students' union bar in my youth would have soon appreciated that rugby union was a man's game. A forum-friendly example of the genre, if not from a students' union sing-song is Max Boyce's ditty, Asso, Asso, Yogoshi. It's a politically incorrect mixture of sexual innuendo and racial stereotyping, but the title is as near as it gets to bad language. Unusually, the lyrics don't seem to be on the web and the YouTube clip is unavailable. I've no idea why Here's a couple of lines from memory:-

... Eat bamboo shoots to make us grow,
Fit platform boots to second row....

More recently, an Australian coach, admittedly with a bit of Japanese ancestry, coached Japan to a famous Rugby World Cup victory against that most macho of XV's, South Africa. What would Max Boyce have made of a rugby side proud to be called The Brave Blossoms? It all seems to have gone quiet over there, perhaps because Eddie Jones' men have also beaten a Welsh side.

Rugby, then is becoming more inclusive, and with a "bare bottoms" alert, here's womens' rugby at one of the word's top universities:-

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12 ... 76861.html

Fast forward from the Rugby World Cup to the Rio Olympics, and the Aussies are whingeing about their poor results. Lady Luck can play a big part and Ritchie Porte must surely be wondering what's going to strike next. But what's happened to Aussie coaching? Have they all noted the fate of Shane Sutton and decided to mend their ways?

Who's for bean-bag throwing?

[Flinders]

Hi,
For her own safety I would see Vic give up this horse riding thingy, when she was asked to have a go she'd never even touched a horse.

In the two races that were viewed on tv news another rider fell in the same camera shot and BOTH horse riders were kicked in the head, when they grabbed their heads the camera shot was cut.............................................I assume that the riders were pro's or had ridden before.

Vickys got several strings to her bow I would go for the safe ones, horse riding probably tops motoX and boxing.

When you ride you wear seriously strong h*lmets for that reason....

[kylecycler]

Hi,
Most probably thank that my Twin is nothing like me
Cant remember when we last met.
The name thing probably wears off later in life, it gets less personal, but wanting to rib someone is just call them by a different name
A lot of people don't even like their first name and use their second.
Havent listened to the 5live yet, still catch up the Olympics.

Not sure what direction she is going at the mo?
Now Wiggo is another story.............

Oh, so you're a twin? I was treading on eggshells when I wrote that, didn't want to cause offence, but what I really meant was that twins - at least in my limited experience - tend to be a trifle eccentric. Nothing wrong with that, though (just don't deny it, that's all!).

When I was in my early twenties I decided, for whatever reason, that I didn't like my last name and thereafter used my third, but I suppose a lot of us did stupid things when we were young.

I think Victoria Pendleton is eccentric, but I also think what she achieved at the Cheltenham Festival was pretty remarkable. John Francombe said she couldn't ride a horse to save her life, and horse riding is a lot more about the horse than cycling is about the bike, but it was quite a story, and if she lives to be 100, like that other remarkable female cyclist Billie Dovey/Fleming, she'll have some stories to tell.

Here she is as you've probably never seen her before, on my favourite bicycle, the 1902 Centaur Featherweight Crossframe:

Me, I only have eyes for the bicycle...

Isn't she beautiful? (Where's the emocion for *love*?)

http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/1902-2/190 ... peed-gear/

[Jdsk]

NB date.

"Bullied, belittled but indisputably brilliant: how Victoria Pendleton survived everything – and became a cycling legend":
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ing-legend

Jonathan