UCI 2006 World Track Championships
Men's Kilometre Time Trial
April 14, 2006; Bordeaux (France)
British Cycling's Larry Hickmott reports
2006 World Track Championships
Yet again, Chris Hoy is on top of the World!
Chris wearing a rather distinctive sprinter's helmet on his way to gold!
For the third time in his career, Chris Hoy has won the World Kilometre title in what may be his swan song for the event. Chris was head and shoulders faster than anyone else and put the result he had in Melbourne well and truly behind him, winning the World Crown and finishing ahead of the person who beat him in Melbourne, Ben Kersten. Prior to the race, Chris was well and truly up for it, hardly able to contain his energy to want to get out there. After the usual delays getting the GB bikes into the starting gate with lots of heated discussions going on as Chris sat patiently on the track, the silver medallist from the Team Sprint yesterday, got on his bike and torched the track much to the stunned silence of the French crowd.
It was a truly fantastic performance by a great athlete, an all time great for the Kilometre and we spoke to him after he came off the podium. "That meant so much to me. I think when you doubt yourself and have questions and you don't know for sure you are going to win, it means all the more when you do. I had a lot of doubt after the Games and as you get older, you start to question whether you are past your best so tonight I wanted this for myself and for the hard work I had put in for the Commonwealth Games."
"I have no idea about the splits but I went out hard, and I then I paid for it at the end and was struggling on that last lap but my aim was to get up to as high a maximum speed as I could and hopefully that would carry me through to the end."
Asked did he feel any pressure from the team, he replied "Not really. I'm confident the Team Pursuiters will get a Gold tomorrow and Victoria in the sprint so its far from a one man show by any stretch of the imagination."
Finally, what of his future in the Kilometre? "I think this may be my last Kilo. Never say never but its likely so that is why it meant all the more to me tonight to go out there and finish on a high and make amends for the disappointment of the Commonwealth Games."
Chris's splits (placing in brackets for that lap): 18.018 (1), 13.402 (1), 14.412 (2), 15.529 (1).
Dave Brailsford (Teams Performance Director): "That was Chris Hoy back to his best. I think the last times he has ridden, he's done a '2' and hasn't quite been the Chris Hoy that we know. I think he took the result at the Commonwealth Games quite hard and he wanted to prove a point, to show the world what kind of an athlete he really is."
"He's a phenomenal athlete and a joy to work with."
On the future of our athletes doing the Kilo, he explained "the bottom line is it's a non-Olympic event now. When you take an event out of the Olympics, it loses importance unfortunately, not only in our eyes, but the rest of the world as well. It's a difficult one for us and it hurts because I think it's been one of the best events that has been on at the World Championships. The crowd have been fantastic, the noise and suspense as usual, it's such a brilliant event and to lose it, I don't think we'll ever get over that."
"We get paid to do well in the Olympic events. We're given a lot of money to win Olympic medals and it's not there to support non Olympic events; the Kilo, the Scratch and 500 metre Time Trial, and that is the harsh reality of it. So we have to get on and we can always look and see whether competing in the events is beneficial to another event that is an Olympic one. The Scratch for Mark and the Points and Madison, and you could argue the same for Chris (Hoy) and the Team Sprint. We'll sit down and take stock of the situation and see what is best for Chris's development on an ongoing basis."
On the team getting medals despite the problems trying to back up after the Games and the long trip home, he says "Medals are always good and overall we're not as fresh and sharp as we would normally be but we're still performing well. With the riders we have and the staff, everybody will give it 100 per cent and you can't ask anymore than that.
Was Chris happy after his ride... judge for yourself!
Ben Kersten, Chris Hoy and Francois Pervis.
Aussie Ben Kersten.
Francois Pervis of France on his way to France in front of a huge fan club in the stands.
Results
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain) 1.01.361 (58.669 km/h)
2. Ben Kersten (Australia) 1.02.085
3. François Pervis (France) 1.02.696
4. Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 1.02.909
5. Kévin Sireau (France) 1.03.107
6. Yong Feng (China) 1.03.314
7. Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 1.03.569
8. Masaki Inoue (Japan) 1.03.799
9. Joel Leonard (Australia) 1.04.092
10. Carsten Bergmann (Germany) 1.04.111
11. Michael Seidenbecher (Germany) 1.04.210
12. Tomasz Schmidt (Poland) 1.04.619
13. Cam Mackinnon (Canada) 1.04.720
14. Wilson Meneses Gutierrez (Colombia) 1.04.805
15. Athanassios Mantzouranis (Greece) 1.04.886
16. Benjamin Wittmann (Germany) 1.05.150
17. Saveriano Sangion (Italy) 1.05.194
18. Hiroyuki Inagaki (Japan) 1.05.756
19. David Cresswell (New Zealand) 1.06.115
20. Michael Rodriguez Malaret (Puerto Rico) 1.06.200
21. Leonardo Bottasso (Argentina) 1.06.579
22. Yannik Morin (Canada) 1.06.874
23. Sergio Guatto (Argentina) 1.06.966
24. Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 1.07.066
25. Daniel Kreutzfeld (Denmark) 1.07.647
