I get asked to comment a lot on inequality in cycling, but for me it has never been an issue. Everything has always been equal on the track, and the male and female riders are all part of the same team, and we all mix freely.

I've been asked to do 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!' and I do get asked to do all sorts of things like that - but I don't want to put my career on hold. I'd have to take three weeks off to do something like that. Maybe it's something I'd think about after it's all ended.

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 said back in 2010 when I was rubbish at the European championships, 'If I never win an omnium until 2012, I don't care.' I then won Olympic gold.

The exercise of democracy begins as exercise, as walking around, becoming familiar with the streets, comfortable with strangers, able to imagine your own body as powerful and expressive rather than a pawn.

Science as an intellectual exercise enriches our culture, and is in itself ennobling.

I never learnt Hebrew because my health was fragile, and it was thought that learning Hebrew would be an added burden. I regret it, because I would like to be able to join in fully. Not that I am a believer, but I would like to be.

In fitness, there are no short cuts. It involves immense discipline and hard work.