17 April 2012
Last updated at 07:30 ET

Sir Chris Hoy is a four-time Olympic champion

Cyclist Sir Chris Hoy’s first bicycle was a girl’s bike, the Olympic gold medallist’s mother has revealed.

Sir Chris, 36, a four-time Olympic champion who won three golds at the 2008 Beijing Games, got the second-hand bike from his neighbour.

His mother, Carol Hoy, said he broke the bike “very quickly” so had to get a new one.

She said she thinks it is “mad” he earns his living by riding a bike but said she is very proud of him.

Mrs Hoy said: “His first ever bike was a girl’s bike, handed over by a neighbour.

“I don’t think he realised it was a girl’s bike at the time. He managed to break that very quickly which perhaps meant he’d like a new one.”

His Olympic titles are “very, very proud moments” but Carol Hoy added: “Then I was proud of him when he won the egg-and-spoon race when he was a wee boy as well. So I’m just a boring mum who loves her kids.”

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“Start Quote

I thought he was going to cry with happiness”

End Quote
Carol Hoy
Sir Chris Hoy’s mother

Chris Hoy is considered one of Britain’s biggest medal hopes for London 2012.

Mrs Hoy’s view of her son’s success forms part of eight short documentary-style films, commissioned by Olympic sponsor Procter and Gamble.

Each tells the story of raising a world-class athlete.

Mrs Hoy recalled: “I think it does seem mad to earn your living from riding a bike, but it’s what makes him happy.”

Edinburgh-born Sir Chris got his first BMX bike when he was about eight or nine.

Mrs Hoy said: “I thought he was going to cry with happiness when we took him to the shop, he was so excited, thrilled.”

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London 2012 – One extraordinary year

• The BBC’s home of 2012: Latest Olympic news, sport, culture, torch relay, video and audio

He has a BSc Honours in applied sports science from Edinburgh University.

She added: “When he said he wanted to continue with cycling and he was at university and I said ‘Fine, but university is the priority. Once you’ve done that, it’s up to you.’

“Secretly I was thinking ‘Hmm, you’ve got a really good degree and he wants to ride a bike…’.

“Did I say that to Chris? No. I think in my heart I thought he’ll get fed up with that in a couple of months.

“I’m really glad I didn’t say it to him.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/news/uk-england-manchester-17741333

British cyclists will continue to deliver Olympic success even if Dave Brailsford gives up day-to-day control of the team, says GB rider Ed Clancy.

Brailsford combines his role as GB performance director with his position running Team Sky and could focus solely on the latter after London 2012.

“It will be hard to replace him if he goes,” said Clancy.

“[But] he’s doing great things with Team Sky and if he wants to go there will be no hard feelings from us.”

Clancy believes Brailsford, who joined British Cycling as a consultant in the late 1990s and now has responsibility for the entire team, would leave a lasting legacy.

“He’s already done us a massive favour over the years, and I’m sure the infrastructure he’ll leave behind, if he goes, will be pretty stable and things will carry on,” said Clancy.

“I know the team is funded until 2016, so onwards and upwards.”

Five-time world champion Clancy won his Olympic gold as part of a world record-breaking team-pursuit quartet, and it was one of a remarkable haul of 14 medals claimed by GB in Beijing, including seven golds from 10 events in the velodrome.

This built on impressive returns from the Athens and Sydney Olympics, which helped Great Britain emerge as a cycling superpower.

Brailsford’s part in this made him the obvious choice to manage Sky’s high-profile foray into the competitive world of road cycling.

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“We know we’ve got our work cut out to beat them [Australia] but it’s great to be trading punches with them again”

Ed Clancy

Now in their third full season, the team can boast the best of British talent in Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins, as well as foreign stars such as Edvald Boasson Hagen and Richie Porte.

Speaking shortly before this month’s

World Track Championships in Melbourne,

Brailsford hinted for the first time that he can no longer continue to do both jobs to the same high standard.

“The growth of cycling is enormous and there’s only so much I can do in a day,” the 48-year-old said.

“There’s no doubt that with all the responsibilities I have it’s difficult to maintain the same level of detail across the entire programme.

“I think we’re all in agreement that it would make sense for my role, or my job description, to shift slightly, but we’ll review that after the Games.”

This prompted British Cycling’s chief executive Ian Drake to stress that nothing would change until after London 2012, and the link between British Olympic cycling and Team Sky would remain, with Brailsford central to that relationship.

For his part, Clancy is relaxed about any changes that may be made to the management structure, particularly after GB’s fine display in Melbourne, where the team won half of the events that will be staged in the Olympic Velodrome in August.

GB’s victory in the men’s team pursuit was especially significant as it came after a few years that had seen fierce rivals Australia gain the upper hand.

“It was probably the first time that our A team and theirs has come together since Beijing and we beat them,” said the 27-year-old, who is also likely to ride the omnium in London, a multi-discipline event he won at the

2010 World Championships.

“We know we’ve got our work cut out to beat them but it’s great to be trading punches with them again.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17743885

Time trial world champion Tony Martin has fractured a cheekbone after being hit by a car during a training ride.

A spokesman for his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team said the 26-year-old German “probably needs surgery”.

Martin beat Britain’s Bradley Wiggins into second place at the time trial worlds last September

and was favourite for Olympic gold in London.

Defending Olympic champion

Fabian Cancellara broke his collarbone earlier this month at the Tour of Flanders.

“Martin was diagnosed with a fracture on his cheekbone that probably needs surgery,” read an Omega Pharma-Quick Step team statement.

“His clinical condition is stable. In agreement with the team medical staff, Tony Martin will undergo further specific examinations that will define the treatment he will need at that point.”

Martin earned 12 victories last year, including Paris-Nice and the Tour of Beijing.

While Wiggins is expected to compete in the time trial in London, his priority may well be the Tour de France in July, in which he has a realistic chance of winning the overall prize.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17691279

British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford has refused to reveal his selection strategy for the men’s sprint at the 2012 Olympics.

Brailsford is among those who must choose between Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, the silver medal winner from 2008, for the place.

“Selecting that team is very difficult,” said Brailsford.

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. Our job is to pick the fastest guy.”

Kenny beat Hoy in the semi-final at the Track World Championships in Melbourne, but the Scot,

who won gold in a dramatic keirin on Sunday

with Kenny in third, has won three of the five sprint meetings between the pair since September.

Regulations permit only one entry per nation per event at the London Games.

The decision does not need to be made until 1200 BST on 3 August, the day before the competition begins, but Hoy would prefer to know sooner if he is to be denied the opportunity to defend one of his Olympic titles.

Brailsford explained: “The dilemma is that if you select now the riders know what they are doing and can train a little bit more specifically.

“The downside is that in 16 weeks anyone’s form might not be the same.

“That is the conundrum – late for form, but early for clarity of purpose.”

Team GB hits heights at Track Worlds

Britain won five golds in the Olympic events in Melbourne – half of those on offer – and Brailsford believes his team are on course for a successful performance in August.

“We’ve got more to come,” he added, describing the haul of seven out of 10 Olympic titles on offer in Beijing in 2008 as a “quirk”.

“There’s no reason why we can’t step up again, but then again everybody else is going to improve.

“Form’s going to decide what happens at the Olympics now.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17660560

Belgian Tom Boonen became only the second rider to win the Paris-Roubaix classic for the fourth time.

The 31-year-old made his break with 35 miles to go on Sunday, finishing one minute and 39 seconds ahead of Sebastien Turgot of France.

He said: “When I was alone in front, I just went for it. It’s my greatest (Paris-Roubaix) win.”

Boonen equals the record for the most victories in the race set by compatriot Roger de Vlaeminck in the 1970s.

Analysis

Boonen, after a few duff years, is having a blinder. He was already having a good start to 2012 when he won another of cycling’s “monuments” the Tour of Flanders last week. This lifts his tally for the year into the realms of spectacular. He is probably now the greatest threat to Mark Cavendish winning the Olympic Road Race.

The 2005 world champion crossed the finish line alone in arguably the toughest one-day race in cycling, before five chasing riders had even reached the velodrome in the northern French town of Roubaix.

“I think today was one of the best days in my career. Normally I have to use my sprint in races like this and it is always much safer to save some energy for the finish,” he said.

“If you put everything into the break and you get caught then you will be in trouble.

“But being a little bit older I tried not to panic and pushed it as hard as I could. It was a little bit crazy. It is not something I often do, but I think today was the perfect day to take a risk.

“I just thought, I already have Flanders, so why not try to get a fourth Paris-Roubaix as well.

“With the wind it was not easy, and I might have been in trouble if a rider like Filippo Pozzato had been able to catch me coming into the Carrefour de l’Arbre, but once I had a minute’s lead I realised that I could do it.”

Italian Alessandro Ballan was third while Juan Antonio Flecha was the leading rider for Team Sky, coming home in fourth place.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17651412

Geraint Thomas is wrong to miss the Tour de France in favour of competing at the London Olympics, according to Great Britain head coach Shane Sutton.

Thomas, 25, has chosen to defend his men’s pursuit title instead of racing in cycling’s premier road race.

Sutton believes the Welshman has made the decision for the “wrong reasons” and should be more selfish.

“He’s doing it for the people of Wales, which is great, don’t get me wrong, but deep down, he’s torn,” said Sutton.

Thomas helped GB

win gold at the 2012 World Track Cycling Championships in Melbourne

and is expected to be part of the men’s pursuit team in London.

With this summer’s Tour de France ending less than a fortnight before the Olympic track cycling begins on 2 August, Thomas was forced to choose between both competitions.

He

opted for the Olympics back in October in 2011,

giving himself the opportunity to become only the fourth Welshman to be a multiple Olympic gold medallist.

But Sutton, the former Welsh cycling coach and 1978 Commonwealth Games team pursuit gold medallist, claims Thomas feels obliged to follow the Olympic route.

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“He’s one of the great bike riders out there at this moment in time”

Shane Sutton
GB Olympic cycling team manager

Speaking to BBC Wales for a forthcoming Olympic documentary, Sutton said: “I’ve always asked this question – and I’ve asked the same question as Sir Chris Hoy – G [Geraint] why would you want to go back and compete at the Olympics?

“And I personally think he’s doing it for the wrong reasons. I think he’s doing it for the people of Wales – you have to do this for yourself.

“But I actually think G is so iconic in this part of the world [Wales] that he feels the support he’s had over the years and the support he continues to get from everybody – it’s so massive I think he feels he has to return the favour.

“I think that’s probably not the right reason and the pressure that must be on him not to ride the Tour, he must be killing himself.”

Thomas wore the white jersey for best young rider in the opening seven stages at the 2011 Tour de France and finished 31st overall. A few months earlier he had his first

major professional win with victory in the Tour of Bavaria.

Sutton already rates the Cardiff-born rider as “one of Wales’ greatest sportsmen of all time” and believes a Tour de France victory is well within his capabilities.

“Because he is a grand tour rider, one of the best grand tour riders that we have, and he’s a guy that actually I think could go a long way in a grand tour if he wanted,” said Australian Sutton.

“He can lead out, he can climb – he can do everything. He’s one of the great bike riders out there at this moment in time.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/wales/17634055

Sir Chris Hoy won the men’s keirin world title with a phenomenal last-ditch move in the home straight at the World Track Cycling in Melbourne.

Hoy crowbarred his way between New Zealand’s Simon van Velthooven and eventual silver medallist Maximilian Levy of Germany to grab the gold medal.

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“This is particularly special because it’s my last meaningful race before the Olympics”

Sir Chris Hoy

The electrifying victory installs Hoy as the clear favourite for the Olympic gold, while Jason Kenny won bronze.

The British team end the Worlds on top of the medal table for Olympic events.

From the 10 events which make up the programme for London 2012, British riders took five gold medals to second-placed Australia’s three.

Wendy Houvenaghel added silver in the individual pursuit, Geraint Thomas combined with Ben Swift for madison silver, and Jess Varnish won bronze in the women’s 500m time trial. None are Olympic races but all four riders are in contention for Olympic selection.

“If this is my last World Championships, and it might be, then what a way to finish,” Hoy told BBC Sport.

While he has long been acknowledged as a master of the keirin, rarely has even the 36-year-old – last year’s world silver medallist – produced such a breathtaking finale.

Boxed in as the six finalists reached the final corner, Hoy swooped down off the banking to take a daring inside line, carving out space between the Kiwi and German riders before reaching the line fractionally ahead of Levy.

Hoy has suffered a disappointing week elsewhere, being disqualified from the team sprint and settling for individual sprint bronze behind Kenny, but he now leaves Australia as a world champion in Olympic year.

“I’d given up – not physically, but I thought the chance of winning had gone by the time I hit the back straight with half a lap to go,” said Hoy.

“Normally I’d go around the outside and put my foot down but I’d lost momentum. It was one last chance – I’ve never gone up the inside before in my life, it’s a real last-chance saloon – I couldn’t believe the door opened and I managed to get through. In some ways I’m very lucky, but very grateful to have won.

“World titles are all special, every single one you remember, but this is particularly special because it’s the last meaningful race I’ll have before the Olympic Games. It’s a great confidence boost and hopefully I’m showing my rivals I can win from any position.”

Kenny

initially finished fourth but the relegation of Van Velthooven promoted him to the podium.

Elsewhere, silver for
Houvenaghel

inside Melbourne’s Hisense Arena is some consolation after she was overlooked for the team pursuit, which is an Olympic race and in which Britain both won gold and set a world record on Thursday.

The 37-year-old won individual pursuit silver behind Rebecca Romero at Beijing 2008 but the event was subsequently dropped from the Olympic programme, leaving the team pursuit her only hope for London 2012.

“Earlier this week I was in two minds whether to do the individual pursuit or not because of the situation that occurred on Thursday [when she was not picked for the team pursuit],” Houvenaghel told BBC Sport.

“I’ve trained so hard with the others and the result the girls got on Thursday was absolutely phenomenal. I would have loved to be part of that but unfortunately didn’t get the chance. [Now] I’m a little bit less frustrated.

“It’s not over yet, I’m very much in the hunt [for Olympic selection]. I won’t be stepping aside or making it easy for any of the others.”

Anna Meares set a new world record of 33.010 seconds in the time trial to win gold for Australia.
Varnish

finished almost a second back in third place despite clocking her own personal best of 33.999.

Team pursuit world champion
Thomas

and scratch race gold medallist
Swift

concluded Britain’s involvement at the World Championships in the men’s madison, finishing second with 18 points to victorious Belgium’s 24.

Swift has won a gold and two silver medals, all in non-Olympic events, as he fights to join Thomas in the team pursuit for London 2012.

The squad for the Olympics is set to be announced in June but it is possible that the precise GB line-up for individual events may not be made public until the Games are under way.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17649339

Gregory Bauge, who on Saturday won back the sprint world title he lost to a 12-month retrospective ban, has told BBC Sport “the hurt lasts a long time”.

The Frenchman beat Jason Kenny to last year’s world gold but was stripped of it when his national federation issued the ban for missed dope tests.

Bauge, 25, beat Kenny again in Melbourne to reclaim the title.

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“Most people would select Hoy as he is a prior Olympic champion but Kenny has strong aspects to his racing”

Gregory Bauge

“It hurts your family and just when you think it’s all over, someone makes some noise and it resurfaces,” he said.

“Although it was only for 12 months, the hurt lasts a long time.

“[To call Saturday's victory] justice sounds a bit extreme. Administrative responsibilities [such as dope tests], whilst necessary, can be annoying when your aim is to be the best in your chosen sport.”

The nature of Bauge’s ban, handed out by the French cycling federation in January, has been called into question by some of track cycling’s other leading riders.

Analysis

Chris Boardman
BBC Sport summariser

Gregory Bauge was in a class of his own at the World Championships. Of all the events we’ve seen, he was the one person who looked fully in control.

Bauge has pretty much ignored that year-long ban – it’s not like a positive for a banned substance, it’s a positive for disobeying a protocol. He has to pay the penalty but there doesn’t seem to be any stigma at all. The guy has come back, heavily tested, following the protocol, and he’s the fastest sprinter in the world at the moment.

Under the terms of the retrospective suspension, Bauge did not actually miss any cycling – he raced throughout 2011 and only later had his results from those events annulled, before continuing straight into the 2012 campaign.

Bauge has won the world sprint final for each of the last four years (though his 2011 title belongs to Kenny, promoted from the silver medal following the ban) and he appeared entirely undaunted by his off-track concerns as he raced to another gold inside Melbourne’s Hisense Arena.

Whoever rides for Britain against him at the Olympic Games in London later this year will face a stiff challenge, be it Sir Chris Hoy or Kenny, both of whom must wait for performance director Dave Brailsford and British Cycling’s coaches to make a decision as they are too closely matched to be split on results alone.

“Most people would [select] Hoy as he is a prior Olympic champion,” Bauge told BBC Sport through an interpreter. “But for me Kenny has very strong aspects to his racing.

“I’ll wait and see what the Great Britain team decide [but I] have no real preference.

“The French team originally had four candidates for the sprint. I’ve found my golden ticket and for me that’s very significant.

“I am now champion of the world and I have a goal in mind. It’s simple, bring on the gold. This is what I’m hoping for through all the preparation work I am doing.”

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sunday 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17649334

Wendy Houvenaghel added silver in the individual pursuit to Britain’s World Track Cycling medal tally as the final session began in Melbourne.

Houvenaghel, one hundredth of a second outside her personal best in qualifying, finished behind Alison Shanks of New Zealand in the final.

Britain currently lead the medal table for the 10 Olympic events by four gold medals to Australia’s three.

One Olympic event remains: the men’s keirin, featuring Sir Chris Hoy.

Hoy and Jason Kenny both made it through to the keirin final but team-mate Matt Crampton missed out.

Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift will conclude Britain’s involvement at the World Championships in the men’s madison, a non-Olympic event.

The individual pursuit is also no longer a part of the Olympic programme having been dropped after Beijing 2008, but Houvenaghel’s silver medal is some consolation after she was overlooked for the team pursuit, which is an Olympic race and in which Britain both won gold and set a world record on Thursday.

“Earlier this week I was in two minds whether to do the individual pursuit or not because of the situation that occurred on Thursday [when she was not picked for the team pursuit],” Houvenaghel told BBC Sport.

“I gathered it together and decided I’d give it a go. and take something back with me on the trip home.

“I’ve trained so hard with the others and the result the girls got on Thursday was absolutely phenomenal. I would have loved to be part of that but unfortunately didn’t get the chance. [Now] I’m a little bit less frustrated, I suppose. I’m relieved to come away with a medal.

“It’s not over yet, there are four or so months left to go and a lot changes in that time. I’m very much in the hunt [for Olympic selection]. I won’t be stepping aside or making it easy for any of the others.”

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17649339

Laura Trott won the omnium world title at the World Track Cycling in Melbourne as Sir Chris Hoy’s Olympic selection scrap with Jason Kenny intensified.

Trott, never out of the top two in the six-discipline omnium, took gold ahead of Australia’s Annette Edmondson.

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“To come here and win the omnium is massive for me”

Laura Trott

Kenny, 24, earlier needed only two heats of a best-of-three men’s sprint semi-final to beat 36-year-old Hoy.

France’s Gregory Bauge then beat Kenny to gold in the final, with Hoy taking bronze over Australian Shane Perkins.

However, with only one place available to GB in the Olympic individual sprint, Kenny’s semi-final victory might have preserved his London hopes after Hoy outperformed him at February’s World Cup.

Trott is assured of an Olympic place after picking up her second world title of the week, alongside the women’s team pursuit title she helped to win on Thursday.

The 19-year-old has yet to stand anywhere on the podium except at the top: all six medals she has now won at senior European and world level since emerging in 2010 have been gold, and she has turned the omnium’s elimination race into her own entertaining signature event.

Leading overnight following Friday’s first three events, Trott placed third in the individual pursuit, 13th in the scratch race and first in the time trial to secure the overall world champion’s rainbow jersey.

Kenny beats Hoy in sprint semi

“I think I’m setting myself up well for London,” Trott told BBC Sport’s Jill Douglas. “To come here and win the omnium is massive for me.

“I’ve never been in that position [of going] into the last event winning. It was really hard on my head but I got myself fired up for it.

“Me and my coach have been doing a lot of work, watching back the races that I haven’t done so well in, and it’s paid off. I improved on the points race, which was that extra margin I needed from the London World Cup.”

Kenny lost his own rainbow jersey to Bauge in an intriguing sprint final inside Melbourne’s Hisense Arena, with the formidable Frenchman powering through the first heat before Kenny looked to have caught him cold with an early dash for the line in the second.

The Englishman did not get the chance to test the now tired-looking Bauge in a decisive third heat, though, as he was judged to have gone off the sprinting line, handing his opponent a 2-0 win.

Bauge won the event last year but was later stripped of the title as a result of a 12-month retrospective ban, imposed by his own national federation, for offences related to dope tests.

Kenny, beaten by Bauge in the 2011 world final, was racing as the defending world champion having been elevated from silver-medal position, but Hoy is the Olympic champion – he beat Kenny in Beijing four years ago.

Since that battle of the Brits, world governing body the UCI has altered the Olympic cycling rules: nations now have only one entry per event instead of two, hence Hoy and Kenny must scrap it out for the one place available to Britain at London 2012.

The British Cycling team for the London Olympics is expected to be announced in June.

Victoria Pendleton,

who won a gripping women’s sprint contest despite a collision with arch-rival Anna Meares of Australia on Friday, ran out of steam in her keirin second-round race and failed to join Meares in the final, which the Australian won.

Ben Swift

won his second medal of a highly impressive week, following up Wednesday’s scratch race victory with silver in the points race behind Australian Cameron Meyer. Neither event is in the Olympic programme.

Earlier,
Geraint Thomas

finished fifth in the men’s individual pursuit, which was also dropped from the Olympic schedule following Beijing 2008.

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17644175

Sir Chris Hoy admitted to BBC Sport he had found his desire to win lacking as he took sprint bronze at the World Track Cycling in Melbourne.

Hoy is battling Jason Kenny, who won silver, for selection in the Olympic sprint at London 2012. This was the final selection race before the Games.

“I’m maybe not quite as up for it as I was in London [at February's Track World Cup],” said Hoy.

“That seems crazy when it’s a World Championships but it hasn’t happened.”

France’s Gregory Bauge eventually won the world title but, for Hoy and Kenny, the priority is securing that Olympic berth.

Rule changes since Beijing 2008, where Hoy won gold and Kenny silver, mean only one can be chosen in the event at London 2012 rather than both.

Kenny gets men’s sprint silver

“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Hoy, 36, when asked if finishing below the 24-year-old Kenny on the podium would decide Olympic selection.

“We’ve had five selection events this year, and that was the final and most important one. I’ve won three of those five and I missed one through illness.

“It’s hard to put your finger on it when you’re not 100% – what’s the reason? Was it psychological, was it physical? You only have to be a fraction off your best and it shows.

“If Jason gets it, he thoroughly deserves it, he rode really well tonight and even in that final ride there, although Bauge won the gold medal, Jason gave him something to think about. Whoever gets the sprint position for GB will do a really good job, I’m sure.”

Kenny said: “Every race has been important, we’ve both shown we can still race at a good level and there’s nothing between us. What will be, will be.

Hoy and Kenny both want sprint spot

“I definitely feel I’ve put a good showing in here today but it’s out of my hands.”

Kenny, comfortably beaten by Bauge in the first of their best-of-three heats in the final, deployed the unusual tactic of hitting top speed from the very start of the next heat. He eventually beat a spent Bauge to the line only to be relegated by officials for crossing out of his lane, handing the title to the Frenchman.

“I can’t really argue with the decision,” said Kenny. “It went perfectly to plan other than getting relegated. After a ride like that it would have been 50-50 [had it gone to a deciding heat], he was cream-crackered lying on the floor and I wasn’t much better myself. Inside, I was on fire.”

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17646319

Victoria Pendleton picked herself off the floor to record a brilliant semi-final victory over Australia’s Anna Meares en route to world sprint gold.

Pendleton suffered track burns after a crash in her first best-of-three semi-final heat against arch-rival Meares.

The Briton struck back to reach the final in Melbourne, where officials relegated Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaite to hand her gold.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” Pendleton told BBC Sport.

Pendleton on ‘rollercoaster’ day

“That’s not necessarily the way I’d like to win, in an ideal scenario, with relegations and stuff. It always feels a bit weird and not very true to the sport, but those are the rules.

“I’m delighted with the result. I didn’t think it was going to happen coming into today. It’s great to end on a high.”

Pendleton intends to retire after the London Olympics and will now do so with nine career world titles to her name, including six in the sprint.

To keep her hopes of winning this one alive, she first had to peel her battered right side up from the Hisense Arena track. She clashed arms with Meares in the midst of a frantic finish to their first semi-final heat, sending the 31-year-old crashing down and burning her right shoulder, elbow and hip on the wooden surface.

“It’s not too bad. I lost my balance, went too far in one direction and lost my traction,” she said.

Pendleton wins thrilling semi after crash

“My dad always said you don’t do track cycling unless you’re prepared to crash. I slid quite nicely, which sounds random, and I felt fine. I could tell it was just surface wounds.”

Meares told BBC Sport: “I’m getting sick of meeting Vicky in the semi-final, it’s making it really hard. For her to pick herself up after that heavy fall and come back as hard as she did is a mark of the woman and the great champion that she is.”

Olympic champion Pendleton against world champion Meares is the London 2012 sprint final to which track cycling fans and the media have been eagerly building ever since Beijing 2008, where they finished first and second respectively.

If the Australian has recently appeared out of Pendleton’s league on one or two occasions, the latter laid her body on the line to prove more than Meares’ match in Melbourne.

Officials relegated Meares from the second heat for straying outside her racing line, levelling the score at 1-1.

Pendleton – burns showing through large holes in her GB skinsuit – then upstaged the 28-year-old Meares in a spectacular deciding heat, winning in a photo finish.

The final against Krupeckaite, last year’s silver medallist, felt predestined for Pendleton in front of a muted Australian crowd.

But the victory came in odd circumstances. Pendleton won heat one and Krupeckaite seemed to have levelled in the second race before the Lithuanian, too, was relegated in identical circumstances to Meares.

Pendleton, already off the track and preparing for a deciding heat when the relegation and her consequent victory were announced, fell into an emotional celebration as she won Britain a third gold medal of the week in Olympic events (fourth overall). Meares took the bronze.

“I was disappointed with the team sprint [on Wednesday, when Pendleton and Jess Varnish failed to earn a medal],” said Pendleton.

“It left me flat, I must admit. Picking myself up for this was quite hard. I thought this was going to be a stepping-stone and I hoped I might do a better performance than I did at the London World Cup.

“I feel I did that and I’m more than pleased.”

Elsewhere on Friday,
Sir Chris Hoy

took a lengthy route to the men’s sprint semi-finals, where he will now face team-mate
Jason Kenny.

The Scot first came through a repechage round following an early defeat by France’s Mickael Bourgain, then edged past Germany’s Robert Foerstemann in their deciding quarter-final heat, which also required a photo to separate the pair.

Kenny defeated Frenchman Kevin Sireau in their last-eight decider with a bold, early bid for the line to set up an all-British semi-final on Saturday. The outcome of that race could help to decide which of the pair rides in the sprint at the Olympics, with only one slot available.

In the six-event men’s omnium, Britain’s
Ed Clancy

lost some ground on his rivals with seventh place in event five, the scratch race, eventually claiming fourth overall despite a strong time trial to finish.

Britain’s
Dani King

took fourth place in the non-Olympic women’s scratch race, having been part of the women’s pursuit team that won world gold a day earlier.

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17636634

Gold medallist Chris Boardman has announced he will quit British Cycling after London 2012.

The current director of research and development has presided over a period of continued success during a nine-year stint with the governing body.

“This job has been great but it demands your entire life to do it properly,” the 43-year-old said.

Boardman’s management and technical innovations influenced cycling’s 14-medal haul at Beijing 2008.

Chris Boardman column

“We tried to understand aerodynamics systematically and our results were such that everybody has since put Great Britain in the spotlight to understand why we were so successful”

• Full column: ‘What I achieved with British Cycling’

Throughout his career, Boardman was quick to

embrace new methods

and continued that when he moved on to British Cycling’s staff.

His revolutionary approach to bike aerodynamics helped athletes such as Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy achieve medal wins four years ago.

“I have spent the last nine years working within the coaching, management and technical aspects of the British cycling team,” Boardman told the BBC at the

Track World Championships

in Melbourne.

“Our biggest achievement for Beijing was improving awareness of how important aerodynamics is.

“[The] decision is tinged with sadness because it’s a big chunk of my life, but I’m convinced this is the right time. It’s been great, but it is somebody else’s turn now.”

The Hoylake-born rider rose to fame at the Barcelona Games in 1992 when he used a Lotus-designed carbon fibre bike to claim gold in the individual track pursuit and was named an MBE.

He then went on to break the world hour record, and wore the yellow jersey at the Tour de France three times before retiring in 2000.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17636151

Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara says he is still on track to defend his title in London despite breaking his collarbone in a crash.

The Swiss rider crashed in the Tour of Flanders classic on Sunday and had surgery in Basle the same day.

“I’m happy that the surgery went so well, but I’m still in pain,” said the 31-year-old.

“Because I had planned a break after the classics anyway, my build-up towards London will not change.”

“I’m going to rest a couple of days, maybe even a week, and then resume training”

Fabian Cancellara

Cancellara crashed in the middle of the pack during a chaotic stretch when riders were picking up their last food supplies, 60km from the finish in Belgium.

“I’m glad I only broke my collarbone and that I’m OK for the rest,” he added. “I’ll be back.

“I’m going to rest a couple of days, maybe even a week, and then resume training.

“The plan is that I return to competition in May, possibly the Bayern Rundfahrt [Tour of Bavaria, from 23-27 May], as I did last year.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17603649

Ed and Pete Kennaugh were completely spent towards the end and I maybe should have carried on going more than I did. I thought I was dying but Ed was already dead, he had no life left. Little things like that are good to go through now, even straight after a victory like this one. But to hang on and win with a world record was extra-special.

The first time we broke that world record, at the World Championships in Manchester before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was just as amazing.

We broke our own record twice in Beijing later that year, but in Beijing we knew we were going to do it. We expected that to happen. In Manchester that wasn’t the case, and definitely not here. Only in the last few days of training did we realise we were travelling well and might just get close to it.

The thing is, it had been a pretty relaxed day. With qualifying not until around 4.30pm local time, we were up at 8.30 that morning, doing a bit on the turbo, a little warm-up at around 10am, a pre-race meal and then down to the track.

Our qualifying ride was two seconds faster than we’ve ever qualified before – the fastest qualifying time ever – and that was great for our confidence. Even though the Australians qualified just two tenths of a second behind us, we were still confident we would deliver in the final.

It was interesting how the Australian crowd inside the Hisense Arena were pretty much non-existent during our qualifying ride. That seemed a lot different to the way it was in London at the Track World Cup two months ago, when every team seemed to get cheered. But we love that rivalry.

Having beaten us in London, they really bigged this race up in the Aussie press. We were relaxed after qualifying, though. We knew we would improve on that London performance – we said as much straight after that race in February – so we spent the next couple of hours, between qualifying and the final, chilling out.

We had a meeting where our coach Shane Sutton went through some changes, and the decision was made to bring Andy Tennant out of the line-up in favour of Steven Burke. We had seen the split times from qualifying and Andy was coming off it a bit, he could accept that and see the evidence. It was the right decision to make, but obviously hard for him: he wanted to ride in the final, as everyone did. Nobody’s place in this team is secure, except Ed, because he’s so good at that start.

Getting onto that start line, you block everything out. And from there, all you can hear is the crowd going nuts one lap, then dead silent the next, then nuts again, and so on. It’s not hard to guess when the Aussies are up, and when you’re up.

It was a good half a lap after we crossed the line that I knew the result. When we finished I couldn’t see the scoreboard so I watched an Aussie rider in front of me – I don’t know which one – waiting for his reaction and listening for the crowd.

When I heard that collective sigh and saw the Aussie drop his head, I knew we’d got it. What an amazing feeling it is, an excitement I haven’t felt in a while. For it to be so close, then to win and to ride a world record lifts all that pressure that had been building and building since November.

London was tough, having them beat us as convincingly as they did, but we turned it around in probably the most exciting race I’ve ever been involved in – especially when I watched it back to see how close it was, because at the time we didn’t really know. To deal with that pressure and deliver what we wanted was amazing. Doing it in Australia’s back yard is the icing on the cake.

We can’t wait for the Olympics now. This result has made us even hungrier. I believed we could close the gap and beat Australia, but it’s one thing to believe that and another to come out and do it. Not only that, the next period is where we made a big leap forward in 2008 ahead of the Beijing Games. We have to do that again.

Winning in Melbourne reinforces the confidence and self-belief we need, and we are all gunning for London 2012. It can’t come quickly enough.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/blogs/geraintthomas/2012/04/world_champions.html

In the latest part of our weekly

#olympicthursday 

series on leading British hopes, BBC Olympic sports reporter Ollie Williams profiles four-time Olympic track cycling gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy.

The face of British Olympic success barely remembers living through the moments etched in the rest of our minds.

“At the time you’re in shock,” recalls Sir Chris Hoy, who became the first Briton to win three gold medals at the same Olympics in a century when he completed his track cycling treble at Beijing 2008.

Continue reading the main story

“I would not be doing this if I didn’t have questions I still wanted to answer”

Sir Chris Hoy

“The experience of Beijing was one of these things you look back on almost like a dream.

“I’ve watched the video so many times now that my memories are often of the video, and not of the experience itself. When you’ve run the race and you’re riding round, it’s hard to take it all in.”

And Hoy gave himself several chances, winning first the team sprint, then the keirin, then the individual sprint as Great Britain took over the Laoshan Velodrome.

“The thing I enjoy the most, looking back,” he says, “is watching the reaction of the coaching staff and my family in the crowd. People enjoying your victory as much as you are. That’s my favourite memory.

“The difficult thing was putting that to bed and moving on to London, thinking about the next target and not dwelling too much on the past.”

Leaving Beijing behind is made all the harder by the status Hoy’s achievements there afforded the Scot, now 36. Already a silver medallist at Sydney 2000 and gold medallist from Athens 2004, Hoy left China as the embodiment of Britain’s finest Olympics in living memory and was knighted soon after.

If he achieves his ambition to carry on cycling until the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he will accomplish the rare feat of competing in an arena named after him, the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.

Yet for all that – the public adulation, the responsibility as that sporting figurehead, the lucrative consequences of those gold medals – Hoy has spent much of the past four years as far from the spotlight as can be imagined. For months at a time he has laid low.

Be in no doubt that Hoy has collected on some of those opportunities (you may recall the cereal adverts) and need no longer worry about money but, in the current climate of scrutiny surrounding the time athletes devote to media and marketing, his discipline and focus stand out.

“I’d already decided I’d do my very best to continue on to 2012, regardless of how it went in Beijing,” he recalls. “And then more so after Beijing, having won the three golds, there was never any doubt I was going to keep going.

“I had a couple of months off the bike and away from competition [after Beijing] and that was very exciting, I was doing fun stuff. But the more time I spent away from the bike, the more I wanted to get back to it and the more I missed being part of the team.

“As soon as I got back on the bike again, I knew. No question.”

Things have not been easy in the intervening four years. Not that those gold medals have clanged about his ample neck as an albatross, more that it is a long time to expect anyone to remain at the very top of their game.

Hoy won at least one gold medal at every World Championships between 2004 and 2008, but has only one to his name since, from the keirin in 2010.

Moreover, changes to the Olympic rules mean Britain can make only one entry to each London 2012 event, as opposed to two in Beijing. Now, even the battle for selection is harder, with Jason Kenny up against Hoy for the men’s sprint place at the Games.

Chris Hoy’s medal record

• 1999 Worlds:
  
  team sprint silver
• 2000 Worlds:
  
  team sprint silver
• 2000 Olympics:
  
  team sprint silver
• 2001 Worlds:
  
  team sprint bronze
• 2002 Worlds:
  
  kilo and team sprint gold
• 2003 Worlds:
  
  team sprint bronze
• 2004 Worlds:
  
  kilo gold, team sprint bronze
• 2004 Olympics:
  
  kilo gold (pictured above)
• 2005 Worlds:
  
  team sprint gold, kilo bronze
• 2006 Worlds:
  
  kilo gold, team sprint silver
• 2007 Worlds:
  
  kilo and keirin gold, team sprint silver
• 2008 Worlds:
  
  sprint and keirin gold, team sprint silver
• 2008 Olympics:
  
  sprint, team sprint and keirin gold
• 2009 Worlds:
  
  absent through injury
• 2010 Worlds:
  
  keirin gold, team sprint bronze
• 2011 Worlds:
  
  sprint, team sprint and keirin silver

However, 2012 has seen Hoy reach back and find the sort of afterburner all Olympic greats possess. He insists the battle with Kenny is nowhere near over; others think Kenny needs an extraordinary result at this week’s World Championships in Melbourne to overhaul Hoy, and then a miracle on top of that.

In Wednesday’s team sprint at the Worlds, GB were disqualified – a frustration for Hoy but debutant Philip Hindes posted a time in the troublesome ‘man one’ slot quick enough to suggest Britain can contend again in this event after several indifferent years.

At the Track World Cup in London two months ago, also the test event for this summer’s Olympic Velodrome, Hoy and the British crowd had a deafening chemistry, more so than any British team-mate in a squad packed with gold-medal potential. He won the keirin gold medal with the fastest racing of his career to date: Sir Chris Hoy continues to improve.

“I would not be doing this if I didn’t have questions I still wanted to answer,” he says. “I’m not doing the same thing again, this is an entirely different challenge and I want to see if it’s possible: winning all three events, or however many I get selected for.

“You cannot quantify the pressure. Pressure is in your head, it’s how each individual perceives it. Pressure could be me sitting here, talking to you now, because there’s a camera and this is going on TV. Some people wouldn’t see that as pressure at all.

“Going to a home Games is an opportunity not many athletes ever get and if you don’t enjoy that experience at the time – because it will pass in the blink of an eye – you’ll regret it. The World Cup in London was amazing, we had that atmosphere and crowd there to support us, and we’ll have the same at the Olympics.

“The longer you go, the more philosophical you become. You look back on your career, you realise it’s coming to an end at some point, and you want to enjoy every last opportunity you have.”

Coverage (times BST): Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17606711

Great Britain’s Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott smashed the team pursuit world record twice in one day as they defeated Australia for gold at the Track Cycling World Championships.

Both teams broke the record in qualifying but GB won the final in a record three minutes 15.720 seconds.

Canada took bronze ahead of New Zealand on day two of racing in Melbourne.

Thursday’s victory echoed the GB men’s achievement in

defeating Australia for gold with a world record

a day earlier.

Britain’s women were more than a second off the hosts’ pace for large parts of the final in front of a passionate Australian crowd, but ate up the gap in a blistering final kilometre to successfully defend their world title.

Their time shaved almost 2.5secs off the world record the same trio set just two months ago at the Track World Cup inside London’s Olympic Velodrome.

New world bests have now been set in four events with some records broken on multiple occasions, a quick Hisense Arena track and Melbourne’s April heat helping fast times.

Australia’s Anna Meares earlier broke the 200m time trial world record in the first qualifying session of the women’s sprint – a warning for Britain’s Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton, who narrowly made it through to the sprint quarter-finals alongside Meares while GB team-mate Jess Varnish was knocked out.

BBC coverage (times BST):

Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily. Preview on 5 live, Tue 3 March, 2200 BST.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17622308

London 2012 organisers have announced alterations to the Olympic mountain bike course, after feedback from competitors in last year’s test event.

Parts of the course, set in the grounds of Hadleigh Castle in Essex, will be widened to allow more opportunities for athletes to pass.

New features have been added to further increase the course’s difficulty.

Continue reading the main story

“It is wider and higher than for the test event and with the stunning setting of Hadleigh Farm we are looking forward to a world-class Olympic event”

Debbie Jevans
Locog’s director of sport

The main climb has been extended and a new feature has been added with an extended climb to reach it.

Several parts of the course, including the switchback climbs, have been widened and a new climb has been added into the start loop which will be used on the first 4.7km lap of the races.

The changes came after feedback from the mountain bike test event last July.

London 2012 organisers, Locog, gave the riders a questionnaire to complete after the test event, and said amendments would be made after criticims that the course was too flat and narrow.

Debbie Jevans, Locog’s director of sport, said she was confident the largely man-made course would be one of the most technically challenging courses at an Olympic Games, and as competitive as possible due to the increased number of places where competitors could pass each other.

“It is wider and higher than for the test event and with the stunning setting of Hadleigh Farm we are looking forward to a world-class Olympic event,” she said.

Some 36 nations are expected to take part in the London 2012 mountain bike competition; the men’s race on 12 August will have 50 riders, and the women’s race a day earlier will have 30 competitors.

Julien Absalon tests the Olympic mountain bike circuit

Other test events have also elicited complaints. At the Greenwich Park equestrian test event, while the cross-country drew praise, the surface inside the dressage and show jumping arena was criticised by some riders.

Show jumper David McPherson, who tested the arena, said the waxed sand and fibre surface was “nowhere near good enough”, with British colleague Nick Skelton adding: “The ground is a little bit dead and dense at the moment.”

And in BMX, concerns were raised at August’s test event over the lack of protection from the elements on the straights, where BMX riders perform the majority of their jumps.

British medal hopeful Shanaze Reade said windy conditions made the Olympic Park course particularly hard for female riders.

Mariana Pajon of Colombia, the 2011 world champion, fell victim to the course at the test event, suffering a hard fall in the women’s final and leaving on a stretcher.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17612461

Great Britain’s team pursuit men won a spectacular gold medal at the World Track Cycling Championships as they beat Australia with a world record.

Ed Clancy, Pete Kennaugh, Steven Burke and Geraint Thomas clocked three minutes 53.295 seconds in Melbourne.

Favourites Australia were close behind, finishing in 3:53.401 for silver.

Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton lost to Australia’s Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch in team sprint qualifying and will race for bronze.

BBC coverage (times BST): Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily. Preview on 5 live, Tue 3 March, 2200 BST.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17608188

Great Britain’s team pursuit men won a spectacular gold medal at the World Track Cycling Championships as they beat Australia with a world record.

Ed Clancy, Pete Kennaugh, Steven Burke and Geraint Thomas clocked three minutes 53.295 seconds in Melbourne.

Favourites Australia were close behind, finishing in 3:53.401 for silver.

Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton lost to Australia’s Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch in team sprint qualifying and will race for bronze.

BBC coverage (times BST): Medal sessions live on BBC Sport website and Red Button from 1000 each day. Highlights on BBC Two 1430-1700 Sun 8 April. Commentary and updates on 5 live and 5 live sports extra 0500-1400 daily. Preview on 5 live, Tue 3 March, 2200 BST.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport/0/cycling/17608188