Pendleton does not believe she's spreading herself too thin

OLYMPIC gold medallist Victoria Pendleton is broadening her horizons in time for London 2012 but she admits she will not become a jack - or jill - of all trades and a master of none.

FOCUSED: Victoria Pendleton is looking at the bigger picture of London 2012 - even if she won't be on top form at the World Championships (Getty Images)

With a women's keirin and a team sprint introduced to the Olympic programme for the first time in London 2012 Pendleton will get her wish and have three shots at gold on home soil.

Her team sprint partnership with Jess Varnish is flourishing and the duo have claimed silver and gold at the first two UCI World Cups in Melbourne and Cali, Colombia while in the keirin - by her own admission her weaker event - she managed gold in South America after a disappointing outing Down Under.

As a result however, Pendleton has had to settle for silver on both occasions in her blue riband event - the individual sprint - in which she is the Olympic champion and five-time world champion.

In Cali she failed to top the podium despite the absence of Australian rival Anna Meares - the Commonwealth champion and Beijing 2008 silver medallist.

But Pendleton is convinced she will not spread herself too thin - even if it means sacrificing her world title in the Netherlands in March.

"My training programme is very much a two-year cycle leading up to the London Olympics and so I haven't put as much emphasis on the World Championships as I have done before," said Pendleton.

"I made the decision a while ago that I would happily sacrifice a bit of form in order to make myself a better athlete in 2012.

"But I am happy with my form at the moment. I trained straight through the recent World Cups and so I know I can be a lot stronger for the big events."

Partly because of the removal of some events from the London 2012 schedule - namely the individual pursuits in which Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Romero are reigning champions - and partly because only one rider for nation is allowed to compete in each Olympic event, Great Britain will be hard pushed to repeat their Beijing heroics.

In the Laoshan Velodrome, Great Britain collected seven of the ten gold medals on offer and Pendleton admits she and her compatriots will between numerous crosshairs in London 2012.

"There will be a lot of countries looking to beat us on home turf so I think it will be hard to come away with as many golds as last time," she added.

"But we're in a very strong position and people are in very good shape when you compare us to this stage prior to the Beijing Olympics."