Making the Switch: Chris Hoy
Story posted March 24, 2008
By Larry Hickmott
Above: Athens 2004-Chris Hoy is Olympic champion flanked by Arnaud Tournant (France) and Stefan Nimke (Germany).
In the Great Britain cycling team for the 2008 UCI World Cycling Championships at Manchester are two riders who won Gold in Athens in 2004, Bradley Wiggins (interview) and Chris Hoy. Whilst Wiggins has been able to continue his focus on an event (Pursuit) that he is clearly the best in the World at, something he aims to confirm again this Wednesday, one rider had to make the switch from an event (Kilometre) he has made his own over recent years to a different sprint event entirely, Chris Hoy.
The Scottish rider is one of the most professional athletes I have ever had the pleasure to meet and that professionalism crosses over to the way he approaches his sporting goals which is why it is unsurprising he has made the Men’s Keirin his own in the last few seasons. Because of his amazing transformation, from a media point of view, it is also not surprising that there is a lot of interest in the double World Champion’s achievements.
One excellent example of that was an article in the Times by Own Slot where he compares what Chris has done to what other well known athletes would have to do to retain their place in the World of Sport – that of getting their head together after losing their chosen event.
But Chris has had much more to contend with pre-Worlds and when we sat down last Thursday, he was not trying to hide the fact he crashed in training during the crucial taper period leading to competition. “Most of the work has been done” Chris started by saying. It’s all about the finishing touches now. I had a bit of a tumble on Tuesday a lap after a motor paced effort. I was riding around and the back tyre blew out which if that had happened 15 seconds earlier it would have been disastrous.”
“In the end though, I just lost a bit of skin off my hip and bum so it was not as bad as it could have been although it is far from ideal in the week before competition.”
Asked if the shock of such a crash affects him, he replied “it’s more about dealing with getting straight up on the bike and behind the pacer (where they are doing 80 kilometres an hour) because if you start thinking about what could happen its not very pleasant so the important thing is to get patched up and get back on the horse so to speak.”
“I’m fine now though – no problems at all other than a few problems the first few nights sleeping.”
He admits that, thankfully, blowing tyres is a rare occasion and it hasn’t happened to him for a long time. “Sometimes you can hold it if you’re flat to the track but I was at an angle and as soon as it blew, I went down.”
Making the Switch
Above: Chris in his familiar style in the Kilometre event, no longer an Olympic event.
Turning our attention to his switch from one event to another, a fact the media have picked up on and been impressed with, the Commonwealth Games champion for his native Scotland admits “I have surprised myself.”
“It has been an enjoyable experience and I didn’t think the Keirin, of all the three events, was the one for me. It was the lowest one on the list of my priorities. Initially, it was Team Sprint and then potentially the Sprint and then the Keirin as an add on but the latter just seems to suit me as a Kilo rider. So for me, the transfer across physically was not a problem, it was just the tactical side and I have the best possible coaching with Iain and Jan to give me advice.”
“Although it has been great so far, I would sacrifice all my wins so far for the Gold in Beijing because that is the one that counts.”
For a race with so many competitors all fairly even when it comes to their times over 200 metres, his success has been extraordinary. Explaining more about the event, and how he has adapted to it, he explains “there are a lot of variables in the Keirin and it is unpredictable but you just have to try and minimise those variables and worry about the things you can control.”
With possibly one of the greatest sprinters in the world chasing him in Theo Bos, Chris Hoy sprints for the line and his first World title in the Keirin event at the Majorca UCI World Track Championships.
“It’s about trying to dominate the race, take control, and trying to impose yourself on the other riders. If you can do that, you can increase your chances of winning. The psychological part of the Keirin is very different to my old event because you are getting up to race in potentially four different races through out the day where as the Kilo was always one big effort, one big focus.”
For anyone who has watched a Keirin, it is easy to believe that the word Kerin means fight such is the physical nature of the event. Chris though cleared up the old wives tail saying “it doesn’t actually mean fight. Keirin means ‘wheel bet’ and I don’t know where the other myth started from.”
Talking more about the physical side of the Keirin where it can turn into a fight or at least it used to in the old days, he explains “If you go in there expecting a battle then it distracts you from what you are doing. So it may happen but you don’t let it distract you. You may get the odd bump or shoulder but you don’t back off.”
“The race has been a bit sanitized recently with different regulations coming in and you’re not allowed to bump and barge before the Derny swings off. If you have any contact with some one before the Derny swings off you get disqualified. In Beijing, a South African got disqualified before we even started the race as he tried to get my wheel and he barged Ryan Bayley.”
The Triple
In Majorca last year, Chris won two World titles and went close (two thousandths of a second) to another. Is the triple a possible this year?
“That is going to be tough” he admits honestly, “especially the Sprint where I am very much an outsider of a Gold medal. If it goes my way, and the form I have is pretty good, I think I have a chance of a medal but it would be a big surprise. A huge surprise even.”
“In the Keirin, I have the potential to win it but it is very unpredictable and the Team Sprint is going to be a real battle particularly with the French who are definite favourites but there are also the Aussies, the Germans, the Dutch and others. I think this event will be the hardest to call because it will be so close between the five teams and I just hope with the home support, our familiarity with the track, the fact we’re very much in the ascendancy with our form for the Team Sprint that we do win Gold. Fingers crossed!”
Match Sprint
Not that many years ago, Chris rode sprint events, won a few but was never really considered a contender for the big crown of World Champion. Since the demise of his Kilometre, that has changed.
Asked what he has done to change from being a world champion against the clock to a world champion in man-on-man events, Chris replied “In the past I was never really interested in it which is why when I did race the Sprint, I was doing it half heartedly. When I focus on something 100 per cent, I’ll give it everything and I wasn’t doing that with the Sprint.”
“Why would I as I never planned to race it at the Olympics? But now the Sprint and Keirin are my only individual events at the Olympics, I now analyse every race that there has ever been in the sprint since 2001. I have my computer hard drive at home full of races and race analysis and I also have coaching from Jan and Iain.” Jan Van Eijden was World Sprint Champion the last time the World Championships were held at Manchester and so is a great ally for Chris to have.
Chris is also paying more attention to sprint races he sees at UCI World Track Cups and the like. “In the past, when I went to races before, I’d be focused only on the kilo and team sprint and although I would watch other races, there is a difference between watching as a matter of interest and watching from a technical point of view. Now, having had coaching on what to look for and what to pick up on, it is just a different mentality I have now really.”
“It is possible to learn how to race. Even if you’re a kilo rider, you’re still a racer. If you have the mentality to race at this level in any sport, then you have the mentality to learn how to race in a slightly different manner. Yes, the Sprint is a different style of racing, but it is still about getting yourself in the right frame of mind and the best out of yourself.”
Team Sprint
A key event for Great Britain is the Team Sprint and unlike the 2006/07 World Cup season where GB were dominant and only lost the world title by two thousandths of a second, this last winter has not seen them win a single Gold. Things though are on the up as Chris explained!
“We have improved a lot recently in the Team Sprint. When you finally get down to preparing for the big event, it sharpens your focus, especially now that the man 1 and man 3 situation has been settled. We have been able to train now with only two different combinations and I think we have made significant strides forward since the World Cup (Copenhagen). Hopefully now we can go out there and do the ride we are capable of.”
Juggling Events
With the Sprint, Keirin and Team Sprint, how does he find time in training to prepare for them all? “It is about achieving a balance. You just have to keep touching on the different components for an event and not do too much of one thing. They are all quite similar as far as the physiological requirements – it’s all about speed and you just then practice the technical elements for each one.”
Chris and Jason Kenny battle it out in training and Chris looked sharp -- very sharp!
Devil is in the Detail
It’s the little things that standing by the side of the track you could be forgiven for not seeing. Like all the details a rider has to have right to prepare 110 per cent for their event. When Chris and I first met that day, the big Scotsman was quite unhappy about the conditions for the training session. With everything that was going on to put all the World Track Championship furniture in place, it was cold inside and that was affecting his training as he explained.
”Today, the temperature when we started was 15 degrees which I wasn’t particularly happy about. Ideally, we’re hoping for a constant 22/23 degrees. This means you’re muscles are warm and relaxed and you get more out of yourself when the conditions are warm. It’s also down to air resistance as well and the colder the temperature, the harder it is to push through the air so you’re not really getting a feel for race speeds which for this final preparation phase is crucial”.
Which explains when you approach the track centre, the notices on the doors are to keep them shut but with workmen all over the place coming and going, there was plenty of cold air getting into the track centre and Chris was unhappy that one of the benefits of having a home venue had been lost.
“The bottom line though is you deal with what is thrown at you and deal with it and although it may be strange for a Scotsman to say he doesn’t like the cold, I am very much a warm temperature kind of person!”
Finally, the day Chris and I met up, the team were in their ‘team pen’ for the first time and I asked is it finally starting to feel like a World Track Championship? “It is” he replied. “It is a funny feeling when you turn up at the track for what is another training day at home and there is all this paraphernalia in the track centre. So yes, it is starting to feel like the Worlds now and tomorrow I move into the team hotel and I think that will be when it hits home that the Worlds are coming.”
Our thanks to Chris for his time and we wish him well in the coming week for all his events.
RELATED LINKS
British Cycling Websites World Track Championships Home Page
2008 Copenhagen World Track Cup
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