Olympic hero Victoria Pendleton waltzed into Monmouth last Thursday (11th October) to talk about her autobiography.

The cyclist appeared on stage at The Blake Theatre with writer Richard Moore before delighting fans by answering audience questions and signing copies of her book 'Between the Lines'.

The Strictly Come Dancing star had earlier found time to squeeze in a quick training session with dance partner Brendan Cole at Monmouth Leisure Centre ahead of Saturday's show.

Pendleton, who won gold and silver medals at the London Olympics before announcing her retirement, has been nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Between the Lines.

Moore, the man asking the questions last week, is also on the longlist for the award for his book 'The Dirtiest Race in History – Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the 1988 Olympic 100m Final'.

He started the event, organised by Rossiter Books, by asking Pendleton how it felt to see her life story in print.

"Odd," she said. "It is something I thought might happen but the reality is something special."

The story of how Pendleton became a world champion cyclist is a fascinating one – from being inspired to take up the sport by her father to her relationship with psychiatrist Steve Peters, who she describes as "the most incredible man I've ever met".

The nine-time world champion also spoke about her time at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland, where she spent two years after leaving university, and flat-sharing with Sir Chris Hoy before the Athens Olympics in 2004.

It was after those games that Pendleton started to dominate her sport – winning world championship and Commonwealth Games medals before sprint gold at the Beijing Olympics.

More world championship medals followed before this summer's Games, where Pendleton, riding with Jess Varnish, was relegated in the team sprint before bouncing back to win gold in the keirin and silver in the sprint.

She admits the disqualification was tough but stayed strong for the sake of her young teammate.

"I tried to not let it affect my confidence. I saw Jess as vulnerable and told her that mistakes happen – it's sport and life goes on," she said.

For more on this story, see this week's Beacon (17th October).