You don't know how good you are until you actually get out on a bike and get riding.

I can get really nervous before a race. People will think this is mad, but sometimes I have got to the start line and thought, 'What if I can't do this?' But the minute I sit on the bike, I am like a different person.

For all the benefits of being in the public eye, there is the odd downside, too. Twitter goes mad sometimes with people saying weird stuff. It is a bit strange, but you can just ignore them. It is not even worth getting worked up about.

I don't feel like an idol to anybody. I don't feel anybody should look up to me.

For 10 days after the Olympics, I couldn't go back to my house because people were sitting outside waiting to take my photo. That was a bit rubbish. At first I was open: 'Yeah, of course you can take a photo...' but after a while, it got to the point where I thought, 'Whoa, I don't like this attention anymore.'

I think when I first started cycling, it wasn't that popular with kids. I felt almost embarrassed going down the road on my road bike; I didn't want my friends to see me because it was embarrassing.