Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolution

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HarperCollins UK, Nov 12, 2009 - Biography & Autobiography - 336 pages

Fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave, this is the story of Britain's greatest ever Olympian.

Chris Hoy has been instrumental in British track cycling's remarkable transformation from also-rans to world superpower. Now, having rewritten the record books as Olympic champion in four different cycling disciplines, and with six gold medals, Hoy has become a household
name and established himself in the pantheon of sporting greats.

This is a fly-on-the-wall account of Hoy and his team as he prepared for the Beijing Olympics, where he became the first Briton in a century to win three gold medals in a single Games, and it has now been fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals, to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave as Britain's greatest ever Olympian.

The story begins with Hoy's introduction to cycling as a BMX racer and his progression to Olympic champion, and explains the origins and evolution of Britain's world-beating team. It includes a bizarre visit to the world's highest velodrome in Bolivia and a spellbinding journey from the razzmatazz of the
European six-day circuit to the craziness of the Japanese keirin races.

Award-winning writer Richard Moore tracks Hoy throughout a season in the saddle, explores his motivations and mentors from a young age, and provides an unblemished insight into the mind of a champion and the largely unknown world of track cycling. It's a story that is fully updated with the remarkable events in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, two successive Olympic Games that were dominated by Hoy and the British track cycling team.

 

Contents

OlGU
5
Porlroil ol the Athlete os o Young on
19
The Kingcycle
35
The Wellydrome
51
The Guvnor
67
Sliding Doors
89
The Futures Bright The Futures Lime Green
115
Zero to Hero to Zero Again
133
1O What Are We Here For?
201
Finally a World Record
222
Looking After Number One
234
Big in Japan
257
The House is on Fire Were Trying
278
Olympics 2008
299
Chris Hoy Palmares
316
Acknowledgements 526
326

Mind Games
153
Killing the Kilo
178

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About the author (2009)

Richard Moore is a freelance journalist who has written on sport, art and literature, contributing to the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Herald, Guardian and Sunday Times. He was a member of the Scotland team in the Prutour, the nine-day cycling tour of Britain, and represented Scotland in the 1998 Commonwealth Games. His first book for HarperSport, In Search of Robert Millar, won Best Biography at the 2007 British Sports Book Awards.

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