Victoria Pendleton, the British track cyclist, has posed for a number of snaps in the latest issue of men's magazine Esquire.

Pendleton charts her unhappiness at the Bejing Olympics in 2008 despite winning gold, and reveals why she never celebrating victories and cycled to not disappoint her father.

“I tried to feel something but I couldn’t. It didn’t feel like it was happening," Pendleton tells Esquire.

"I was smiling at one point but then the national anthem started and I was like, ‘You can’t laugh through the national anthem. That’s treason!’ But it just felt so comical. It was totally messed up.”

Early retirement is planned by the 31-year-old, leaving London 2012 as her last likely chance of a second Olympic gold medal.

Read the full Victoria Pendleton interview in the Esquire August issue, out now. Also available as digital edition.

Photography via Greg Williams courtesy of Esquire