Sir Chris Hoy bows out with keirin gold at London 2012 to overtake Sir Steve Redgrave as Britain's greatest OlympianBy Paul Kelso 11:53PM BST 07 Aug 2012
Sir Chris Hoy had stood behind the middle step of the podium five times at three Games before Tuesday night, but experience was no help as he prepared to accept the medal that took the Scot past Sir Steve Redgraveâs golden haul of five.
Hoy has been out-sprinting the cycling world for a decade, collecting titles like stamps and leading the rise of the sport in Britain, a transformation that reached a searing zenith with his victory in the keirin.
He knows every step of the four-year journey, though 35 hours of training a week and interval sessions that make you vomit, and he has perfected them all.
But for this remarkable athlete, who now stands alone as Britainâs most successful Olympian with six gold medals, the last step was the hardest.
As Maximilian Levy and Teun Mulder, the men he had vanquished, stepped up to collect their medals, the Scotâs shoulders began to heave.
Staring at his shoes he tried to bite back the tears, but for the first time all day, failed miserably. The tears began to flow, and continued throughout the medal ceremony and an anthem that has been heard eight times in six remarkable days in this arena. They were still coming as Redgrave embraced him at track side.
Four years of dedication focused on delivering the perfect ending to one of sportâs great careers had paid off, and Hoy was in pieces.
âI was in a right old state,â he said afterwards. âThere are so many moments in the four years when you are doubting yourself. You only see the final polished product but its four years of hard work, injury, defeat, it is not a glamorous thing to be a cyclist, you have to put a lot of hard work in and that is what makes these moments so special.â
Spoken like a true Olympian, now officially Britainâs most successful, âeven on countbackâ as Redgrave told him. At 36 this will be Hoyâs last Games, and his time the world stage could not have ended more perfectly.
Hoy was the square-jawed face of British cycling long before the younger, bolshier members of this high-achieving family came along. If Bradley Wiggins is the rock nâroll child, Mark Cavendish the tearaway with rockets in his heels, and Victoria Pendleton the flighty sister, Hoy is the hard-working, faithful eldest son, who sets and maintains the standard.
He did it again here, fittingly bring down the curtain on another week of Olympic domination from the home team. Londonâs Olympic vision was built on the promise of stars like Hoy triumphing in venues built around their dreams and, as with Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah in the stadium, he delivered.
The Scot emerged for his final Olympic effort in another tingling atmosphere created by a home crowd drunk on success. Laura Trottâs victory in the omnium had sent the place into raptures, but Pendletonâs defeat to arch-rival Anna Meares in the penultimate race added an edge of anxiety, reminding an audience laced with royalty that this is sport, not soap opera.
We need not have worried. Hoy has lost only five of more 60 keirinâs in his career and he maintained that record, though Levy, a German12 years his junior, pushed the Scot incredibly close in a scintillating finale.
The keirin may have the most bizarre bit-part player of the Games in the Gurney-riding pacemaker, a priest in a Lycra cassock, but the sport is genuine and thrilling.
Levy lined up looking like Judge Dredd, his eyes hidden behind a silver visor and only his bristled chin visible. Hoy would have to live up to his Superman nickname once more to retain superhero status.
He and his coaches have been working on a more flexible approach to race, decided in a two-and-a-half lap dash, but here the tactic was simple. âWe turned it into a flatline bike race,â said his coach Ian Dyer.
Hoy surged to the front once the Gurney pulled aside, leaving himself 500 metres to hold off the field. On the back straight of the final lap Levy pulled half a length clear on his outside, with both men knowing that if the German could double that lead he would dive to the inside and shut Hoy out. âI would have been nowhere,â said Hoy.
That was the moment that the yearâs of dedication paid their dividend. Seeing his coaches âgoing mentalâ Hoy knew he had to bury himself one last time.
âWith a lap to go I caught my coachâs eye. He was two feet off the ground going mental, and I realised now is the time to go. I was feathering the throttle a little bit, I wasnât going full gas.
âMax was coming with a hell of a lot of speed and he almost got past. But I knew that if I could keep him there on the outside of me, and I had the inside line, there was a chance, I might be able to hang on.
âI gave it every last effort. All the gym sessions, all the road sessions, all the track session, all the interval sessions, all the hard days, thatâs what got me through the last 50 metres.â
The reaction when he did was quite breathtaking. Londonâs venues have resounded to remarkable scenes in the last 11 days but few ovations have matched this.
The roar made the 6,000 seats resonate to the touch, not that many were still sat down when he crossed the line.
Hoy thanked the crowd, describing them as âa hand pushing you along the trackâ, but the gratitude deserves to flow in the other direction.
In a sport based on power and speed he has defied age and the challenge of men who were in school when he won his first medal in Sydney 12 years ago.
There will be a valedictory Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in two years, but he bows out in similar style to Redgrave; with every last effort left on the track, and trailing golden memories.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/9460315/Sir-Chris-Hoy-bows-out-with-keirin-gold-at-London-2012-to-overtake-Sir-Steve-Redgrave-as-Britains-greatest-Olympian.html Great piece on Sir Chris Hoy. The only blot is that that it's a Derny bike, not a Gerny bike.
