Training Pinarello sold off as usual as Sun reports champion denied chance to own gold medal track bike
British Cycling has denied reports in the British media that it has sold off Victoria Pendleton’s gold medal winning track bike, robbing the multiple World and Olympic champion of the chance to keep it herself. A story appeared in The Sun this morning, expressing the 31-year-old’s dismay at not being given the chance to buy what would have been the ultimate souvenir of her Olympic triumph, but the real story is very different.
"I was going to buy the bike, but they’ve bloody sold it and without telling me,” Pendleton said. “I don’t know who sold it or who they sold it to but it’s gone and now I can’t have it.
“Luckily I got my pump and my bottle cages from it but that is all I’ve got — oh, and a couple of pedals and a spare inner tube.”
Pendleton’s reference to the pump and bottle cages gives away that fact that the recently retired rider - whose autobiography “Between the Lines” goes on sale tomorrow, and who has recently been announced as a contestant on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line up - was referring to her Pinarello Dogma road bike, which she used for training, and not the highly limited edition UK Sports Institute bike used by the Great Britain track team.
VeloNation contacted British Cycling to clarify the situation, and this was confirmed.
“It was her road bike that’s been sold,” Press Officer Abby Burton confirmed. “This is standard procedure for when a rider finishes racing, we use the money to help fund next season’s equipment.
“We would never sell a bike from London 2012.”
Sadly for Pendleton, the opportunity to buy the bike that she has been training on all season has been missed. However, the Sun's story that British Cycling has sold off her medal winning ride appears to be an inaccurate one.
“I’d said I was willing to buy the bike,” she said. “They sell them at the end of the season because obviously you get a new one each year. But no, it’s already gone.”
Pendleton will be signing new copies of her book at Waterstones Canary Wharf, London, tomorrow, September 13th from 12:30pm, then at Waterstones in Manchester’s Trafford Centre on Thursday, September 20th, between 5-6pm.