\n Pendleton was one of a number of Olympic champions in attendance on Friday, as teams of amateur cyclists took on the Great Ormond Street City Criterium Race. A quartet of corporate cyclists raced for an hour around the city, before professional riders such as three-time Olympic champion Ed Clancy, finished off the final few laps.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pendleton revealed she was offered the chance to ride a few laps but insists her cycling days are now confined to the trails. The double Olympic champion said: \u201cI was asked if I wanted to take part in the racing, but I said absolutely not!\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s not my scene anymore, and I\u2019m not good enough to do it at that level now. It would take too much training to prepare. I haven\u2019t done a criterium race since I was under 16, which was about 14 years ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese days, I still ride, but only casually. I\u2019m very much a fair-weather cyclist. I go out on a mountain bike in the woods just for fun, with no training or competitive goals, just to enjoy the scenery.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n While Pendleton could not be convinced back into the saddle, the 45-year-old was adamant she would not miss the return of the iconic event. The charity race marked the return of Nocturne for the first time since 2018, with professional races taking place on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n All riders on Friday were raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, a cause close to Pendleton\u2019s heart ever since her twin brother Alex underwent treatment for leukaemia at the hospital as a child.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m a huge supporter of sport and have been an ambassador and a children\u2019s champion for many years,\u201d she added. \u201cThe staff were absolutely amazing. To this day, [Alex] has maintained contact with one of the nurses who looked after him, which is fantastic.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe hospital does such incredible work in caring for children and supporting their welfare, as well as helping parents.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey give children a sense of normality through play and education, which is so important. Having experienced Great Ormond Street firsthand, you see the level of suffering and how young and innocent these children are.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking and every parent\u2019s worst nightmare. Anything that can be done to make the hospital experience more bearable, for both the children and their families, is incredibly valuable.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFunding goes toward research, improving facilities, and creating better environments for children and families, whether that\u2019s outdoor spaces, play areas, or access to more specialists and expert care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pendleton was one of a number of Olympic champions in attendance on Friday, as teams of amateur cyclists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-219665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}