LONDON, England ● A fictional film alien with a glowing fingertip and his earthly friends’ desperate ride to protect him inspired Britain’s six-time Olympic cycling champion Chris Hoy to take up the sport when he was six.
“There was a scene where they were going over jumps and they’re getting chased by the police and I thought ‘wow that looks fantastic’,” Hoy told reporters on Wednesday of the influence the Stephen Spielberg film “ET: The Extraterrestrial” had on him as a wide-eyed child.
“Shortly after that I got a BMX bike and I took up BMX racing and that set me on the path to where I am today.”
Looking relaxed now that he is Britain’s most successful Olympian and expected to retire after the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hoy said increased funding, hard work and paying attention to detail was Britain’s formula for winning seven golds, a silver and bronze in track cycling and one of each on the road.
Experimenting with riding positions in wind tunnels, special mattresses, psychology and wearing heated “hotpants” designed to warm the muscles to optimum racing temperatures were some of the finer points in the quest to push the competitive edge.
“We’re not trying to improve one area by 10 percent, we’re trying to improve all areas by 0.1 percent and when you put them all together that’s when you get this significant gain.”
Hoy said he was pleased that British cyclists had managed to almost match their medal haul from Beijing despite a 2010 decision by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to replace several events at the Olympics with the multi-discipline omnium to give endurance riders a fairer chance at medals.
“It’s immensely satisfying that it didn’t really work out for the UCI in their attempt to manipulate the medal table, if you like,” Hoy said.
The decision to replace the madison, individual pursuit and points race by the omnium at the 2012 Olympics did not go down well within the cycling community and was expected to deprive several major track cycling nations, such as Britain, Australia and France, of medal chances at the London Games.
Hoy was joined at the press briefing by Britain’s newest track cycling sensation Laura Trott, who won golds in the women’s omnium and team pursuit.
Trott said she still felt the whole experience was a bit surreal and had not got her head around winning a gold medal at the same Olympics as Bradley Wiggins, who won gold in the men’s time trial and became the first Briton to win the Tour de France earlier this year.
“I’m still a 20-year-old kid,” said Trott, who met Wiggins when she was a junior and had her photo taken with him.
Hoy said that of all his medals, he treasures his last win in the keirin on Tuesday most because he rode home to a thunderous reception from British fans in the Olympic velodrome.
“Once you cross the line and you hear that roar, there is nothing like it,” he said.