Britain’s top track sprinter Chris Hoy is happy with his form just
three months prior to the start of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships
in Manchester – March 26th to 30th 2008.

Hoy at speed

The 31-year-old from Edinburgh has already won gold medals in the Keirin
at the first two rounds of the UCI World Cup events in Sydney and Beijing this
year and is feeling positive about his preparation for his big year ahead.

“It’s pretty much on target,” said Hoy: “It is still
early in the season at the moment but every race counts in qualification for
the World Championships. It is good to start the season on a high by winning
a few gold medals and getting some good placings.”

Hoy won gold medals in the men’s kilometre time trial and Keirin in the
2007 World Championships in Palma, Majorca. His world cup Keirin victories
give him three consecutive wins in the event against world class competition.

“The Keirin is quite an unpredictable event and it is not often that you
can get a string of consistent places. It is encouraging that I can go unbeaten
for so long but it is inevitable that it won’t go on forever. I am getting
more experienced and the longer it goes on, the better it is for me. The kilometre
time trial and team sprint events are a bit more predictable because it is just
you against the clock but if you ride to your strengths in the Keirin and stick
to your game plan, you can eliminate a lot of the variables.”

The GB team has a huge battle ahead in the men’s team sprint. Hoy led
the team sprinters to bronze in the Sydney World Cup but has his sights set
on World Championship gold in Manchester.

“We haven’t really decided our ‘A’ team in the team
sprint yet,” Hoy explained: “We have been trying different people
in different positions so we have yet to run our full strength team, which obviously
we will do at the World Championships. This year we missed the gold medal by
two thousandths of a second in Palma, which is less than a blink of an eye.
So we are looking at every possible area where we can make small gains. We have
not won a team sprint gold since Los Angeles in 2005 so we are aiming to turn
that round in Manchester and that would be great to do that in front of a home
crowd pushing us on.”

Hoy has also picked up some awards off the bike. He was in his native Scotland
last week for a civic reception in Edinburgh celebrating his successes on the
track in 2007. He also picked up the Sports Person of the year award from the
City of Glasgow this month.

Website – www.worldtrackcycling.com