Victoria Pendleton loves getting dressed up for fashion photoshoots – and, in some cases, undressed.

But under the soft-focus, Home ­Counties girl-next-door image, she is hard as nails. And she has the nail varnish to prove it.

Queen
Vic is the Olympic sprint champion who picked herself up from a 40mph
crash to win her ninth world ­championship cycling gold medal on the
track.

And, as she modelled a grass skirt
made entirely of blue electrical flex, Pendleton promised to turn the
cables again on Aussie arch-rival Anna Meares at London 2012.

Not
to put too fine a point on it, Pendleton and Meares are not close pals.
In the pin-up stakes, you can decide which one’s the broomstick and
which one’s the lipstick.

But
if Meares, or any of Pendleton’s rivals in the Olympic Park’s “Pringle”
velodrome, think she’s all handbags and glad rags, they are
underestimating her inner steel.

Earlier
this week, she triumphantly tweeted of a personal best deadlift in her
“last-ever” weights session and, if anything, the dramatic smash at the
world championships in Australia three months ago has only ­toughened
her up even more.

Pendleton,
31, said: “When you crash at that speed, you don’t have a chance to
think about the consequences of hitting the floor or counting your ribs
afterwards. And, in Melbourne, it was a case of dusting myself down and
thinking, ‘It’s only a scratch, get on with it’.

“I was lucky that I didn’t break anything but I really didn’t think it was a big deal to get back on the bike and win.

“I’ve
only crashed three or four times like that, and two were not my fault
as I was definitely ‘hooked’ by another rider. But overall, I’ve been
lucky.

“Having said that, I
would not ­recommend crashing in a world ­championship semi-final
against Anna Meares on her home track – but I can highly recommend
beating her and reducing the Aussies to virtual silence.

“There
had been a few snide comments in the Aussie Press that I should spend
less time doing photoshoots and more time on the bike, if I wanted to
go faster than Anna, so to beat her in her own back yard was pretty
satisfying.

“You don’t get
much joy back from the hours you put into training, less still from
crashing at 40mph. You need a sense of toughness to keep going.”

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