FREE HEROES, VILLAINS AND VELODROMES: AND BRITAINS REVOLUTION PDF

Richard Moore | 368 pages | 30 Aug 2012 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780007265329 | English | , Chris Hoy's success took brutal hard work and a cycling revolution - BBC Sport

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Another book I'm not sure I know how to write about. The first half of it I loved, the second half of it just got on my tits. Do I sing the praises of the first half or just pick away at what's wrong with the second half? Oh decisions, decisions, decisions. Strengths: Moore conducted numerous interviews with the key players, meaning the book offers a variety of voices and viewpoints. The benefit of this is particularly obvious when you compare Moore's version of Hoy's story with the one presented in the official autobiography ghosted by Moore. Weaknesses: Critical insight into the set-up seems to stop with the departure of . On the other side of the story, Moore gets a tad too close to his subject - Hoy - and starts spouting some serious bullshit. And he really doesn't need to do down road cycling and in order to make Hoy and the British Cycling track programme look good. Once upon a time, British cyclists ruled the world. Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution just on the track. They were kings of the road too. I'm not making this shit up. Ok, so it was away back in the time of Victoria, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution the point is it happened. Hell, the Brits were so good they even had one of the sport's first real villains, Choppy Warburton, the Michele Ferrari of his day. Britons were also innovators. Go UK! But then Britain fell in love with the Heroes and the football. Cycling fell out of favour. Heroes came and went, but they were mavericks, succeeding despite the lack of support from the system. Then, in the nineties, the system changed. And in the past dozen years Britain has gone from being a make-weight to one of the top dogs in international cycling. Well, on the track at least. Moore, the author of the rather good In Search Of Robert Millarought make for a good choice of storyteller here. A cyclist himself, he knows the system from the inside, and knows Hoy personally from their days representing at the : "Chris and I were team-mates once. We Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution in the same Scotland team at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lampur inbut in many ways we belonged to different eras. For him, the Commonwealth Games were the start - they provided a springboard. For me, they were the end, the Commonwealth Games being as high as the bar of my ambition - I use the word advisedly - was set. And certainly for the first half of the book Moore fulfils the role perfectly. He talks to the people who know Hoy - his parents, team-mates, former coaches and the like, and from them builds up a picture of the man, and partly of Scottish and British cycling in the nineties. The story is told economically, efficiently. The book breezes along and you think you're onto a real winner. But somewhere around halfway through the book, Moore hits a speed wobble. Then again, it could be me. But it's happened more or less in the same place each time I've read the book. So I'm blaming the author. I think it's that Moore gets Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution to Hoy - too close - and the early, almost matter-of- fact distance gives over to some out and out cheerleading. It begins with the axing of the kilo from the Olympic schedule, when Moore stops reporting what actually happened and starts arguing for what he wished had happened. Moore suggests that, rather than surrendering any track disciplines to make room for BMX, the UCI should have axed the road time trial. Or maybe he just doesn't care. It's funny - Moore would say ironic - that this kilo rant comes after talking to Steve Peters, whose whole argument is about separating emotional responses from logical ones. Here Moore's all emotion and no logic. Moore's whole save the kilo spiel is based on the fact that Heroes was Hoy's event. Well, Hoy's for the previous four or five years anyway, the Scot having only taken it up after the Olympics. But the arguments that Moore makes in favour of the kilo - he falls just a little short of calling it cycling's blue riband event - simply don't hold any water. And that was after the BBC had got involved with the project. Then comes the serious pom-pom waving, which involves Moore suggesting of Hoy's altitude flying five-hundred metre record that "it is difficult to imagine it ever being beaten. Or how about, after Hoy's altitude record attempts, talking of a speech Hoy gave "which must go down as one of his finest achievements - it was heartfelt and generous. Just as quick as it started, the wobble is briefly brought under Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution and Moore interviews Shane Sutton, who, next to Heroes Keen, is probably the stand-out interviewee in the book. I like Sutton. Willing to call it like it is. He's one of the few guys who could say of Hoy that he has "that C-U-N-T element" and you know he means it as a compliment. The Hoy Sutton describes has edges, a rough surface. He's not the bland, perfect human he's presented as in the autobiography. He's not the charisma-free zone, the pedestal-mounted plaster saint depicted elsewhere. Sutton's Hoy is selfish, manipulative, a bit of a Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution. But nice with it. Let's start with something simple, a comment from that I find quite telling: "Some people are very quiet on doping, but I've always been open about it. We're gong to do it in-house, and if I see anything dodgy, I'm just going to phone you up and say, "Look, we know what you're doing. You can tell me about it if you want. But you ain't riding, that's for sure. Now, to me, what's most important about that comment is that Brailsford doesn't seem to give a fiddlers about getting rid of doping. He just wants to avoid possible scandal. He's happy to cover up for dopers, leave them to continue doing what they're doing - so long as he's washed his hands of them - and not help the authorities kick them out of the sport. For Moore though, what's important is pointing out that those riders Brailsford allowed to continue doping, just not in Team GB colours, were road riders with continental professional teams. Remember the important lesson kiddies: track cycling clean, road cycling dirty. Keep saying that to yourself and who knows, you might even convince yourself it's true. Moore seems to have. But just remember this: Moore himself quotes Hoy saying "There are about two or three [dopers] left in the world of sprinting. Moore also has Keen saying that "definitely, without a doubt" Hoy has beaten athletes on drugs. And Moore himself, for all he tries to suggest that the only doping problem in cycling is happening Heroes men's road racing, can't avoid referring to some of the dopers who've ridden on the track. Some of whom even got to wear GB colours. Take the case of Gary Edwards who, intested Heroes for testosterone at the national track championships, where he won silver in the team . After his ban - one year - Edwards again tested positive, for nandrolone. This time he got a two year ban. But before that was landed on him, Edwards won two Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution medals at the World Masters Championships he had continued racing, having not been handed a provisional suspensiononly to test positive yet again, this time for Stanazolol, which finally prompted a lifetime ban under the three-strikes-and-you-really-should-just-fuck-off rule. Trackies, based on the examples Moore offers, seem to have recidivist tendencies. There he got busted for nandrosterone and got banned. In May he tested positive for testosterone and in November the same year Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution human chorionic gonadotrophin HCG. For whatever reason, those last two offences were treated as one and Alfred landed an eight year ban. Alfred stayed in the registered testing pool, rather than retiring. But when the testers came a calling inasking for an out of competition sample, Alfred refused to entertain their request. A refusal being the same as a positive, Alfred was hit with a lifetime ban. As serious as Edwards' case was to British Cycling - it has always argued that even one doping case could endanger all of the federation's Lottery funding - there was an even more serious case, that of Neil Campbell. Campbell was selected to ride the at the Sydney Olympics in but five weeks before the games left the squad, having tested positive for HCG at a World Cup race in July and again at the British championships a couple of weeks later. Because he was British the immediate assumption was that he was suffering from testicular cancer HCG being an early indicator of that disease. So when he went home he was treated as Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution plucky Brit with true Heroes who would, like Lance Armstrong before him, battle his testicular cancer, defeat it and return reborn. Except of course that when he got home and the cancer doctors pricked and prodded him, they declared him fit and healthy. Which only left one conclusion: Campbell had doped. But by then the media had forgotten all about him and no doping scandal ensued. What's interesting about the Campbell case is how it highlights the difference between a doping incident and a doping scandal. Doping incidents - if you can bury them - are no problem. Doping scandals on the other hand are a problem. You have little or no control over them. Thus it was that, for Brailsford, the episode - which technically wasn't even doping - was "one of the worst days I've had in this job. But that's the point about doping scandals. - the world centre of cycling

The most vivid memories tend to be concerned not with the big moments, but with the minutiae, the weird, wonderful and wacky. Mine, then, is a taxi ride through in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning, in the company of Chris Hoy and a Greco-Roman Heroes wrestler from Canada. Hoy, with his three gold medals stuffed into his jeans pockets, has been out for a few, but not too many. It is only six hours after his third triumph, and he looks drained and a little shell-shocked. He is knackered, he says. Actually, 'knackered' is not what he says, but with his new status as a Great British Olympian and A-list celebrity, it wouldn't be fair, given the lateness of the hour and the albeit modest amount of alcohol consumed, to quote him verbatim. But before the taxi pulls away, a large set of knuckles raps on the window. The door swings open and a huge figure looms. Heroes are, so Hoy vacates the front seat and moves into the back. The man mountain squeezes in. He is Ari Taub, a 6ft 3in, Heroes wrestler. How had Heroes Olympics Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution I got beat,' he says. One day I want to ride the whole Tour, in front of the race. The taxi arrives at my hotel, and I leave them chatting about Mark Cavendish, though not before telling Taub that Cavendish happens to be the only member of the British track cycling team not to have won a medal in Beijing. At that he swivels his considerable bulk 90 degrees to look more closely at Hoy, who has kept resolutely quiet about his success. What is wonderful about this encounter is not just that it shows Hoy at his modest, humble best, but that these two athletes are at opposite ends of the sporting spectrum, Hoy being one of the most decorated athletes in Beijing, Taub being someone whose Olympics lasted four minutes and ended with a first bout knockout. Yet it doesn't matter: they are Olympians, and the bond that confers overrides their opposing nationalities, sports, successes and failures. Taub, I subsequently learn, is a year-old father of four who had tried for 20 years to get to the Olympics. He was dropped at the last minute from the Canadian team for the and Games; for eight years he was sidelined with a neck injury that, if aggravated, would leave him a quadriplegic. But it turned out that was a misdiagnosis. He pursued his dream 'purely for personal satisfaction', he added, pulling from his wallet a card with the following quote: 'The most important thing in the is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well. Hackneyed though it may sound, it is extremely difficult to imagine a more deserving recipient of success, fame - and the fortune that now seems likely to come his way - than Chris Hoy. In the taxi, when Taub was not eulogising about Cavendish, Hoy began to tell me, in hushed and stunned tones, about some of the offers that were beginning to trickle in, including one of six figures from a magazine, the quid pro quo being that he will pose for photos in different rooms of his house. Get used to it, I told him. The trickle is likely to become a tsunami. Hoy struggled to get his head around that. I Heroes know he'd put a bet on, and I can't believe he did. It's really flattering he had the faith and confidence in me to do that. Hang on, I think, shouldn't Queally be the grateful one? Next day, Hoy meets some Scottish journalists. One puts it to him that: 'In the last 24 hours everyone has been offering an opinion on Chris Heroes. But what does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy? Hoy doesn't miss a beat: 'Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy refers to Chris Hoy in the third person is the Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse. Luckily for Hoy there are people who will keep him grounded, such as his family - his mother, Carol, says her boy is 'too wee' to be knighted, for example - but also, a little unexpectedly, the staff at London House, which is the official 'presence' of the London Games, run by the London Development Agency. On Wednesday evening Hoy and his family visit London House only to be told that the rule of entry is strictly one athlete, one guest. Hoy still has his three medals in his jeans pocket, but initially it seems to count for nothing that he is the country's most prolific gold medallist in a century. When he is finally allowed in, he is warned not to Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution in a rowdy manner, like his fellow cyclist , who had Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution a contretemps with a taxi driver the previous night, after rolling across the car's bonnet. Hoy will not change, but his world will. I haven't seen the outfits. But the really crazy thing is, they seemed genuinely worried that I might not like them. I watched it all. That guy's awesome, eh? Topics Olympics The Observer. Reuse this content. Most popular. Olympics: Cycling - Success will not change humble Chris Hoy | Sport |

Hoy is eleven-times a world champion and six-times an Olympic champion. With a total of seven Olympic medals, six gold and one silver, Hoy is the second most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time. With his three gold medals Heroes Summer OlympicsHoy became Scotland's most Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution Olympian, the first British athlete to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games since inand the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time. After winning a further two gold medals in the and Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution sprint at the Summer OlympicsHoy has won more Olympic gold medals six than any other British athlete along with Jason Kennyand more Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution medals seven than any except fellow cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins. The son of David and Carol Hoy. He first became aware of track cycling when he Heroes TV coverage of Scottish sprinter Eddie Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in . He played rugby as part of his school's team. Hoy joined his first cycling club, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution C. They were beaten by an excellent French team but the two medals won for GB was the start of the renaissance of British Cycling which has led on to remarkable results over his career. Hoy arrived in in the form of his life. His main event was the Kilo Time Trial. He was ranked No 1 and was last man off. The sea level World Record was broken four times as he sat in the track centre waiting for his start. He had been Heroes in an accident in the athlete's village just a few days prior to competition where he came off his bike in front of a village bus, narrowly avoiding serious injury. As he came out of the starting gate, his Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution arms and legs showed how close he was to not competing. The previous rider was who set the fastest ever sea-level kilo. Chris came next and, cheered on by thousands of loyal British fans, he bettered the time on each lap, setting a new sea-level World and Olympic Record of 1. This was the first of his Olympic gold medals and added to the Silver, won in the Team Sprint in Sydney in Following the decision to remove the Kilo from the Olympic programme after the games, Hoy sought to develop in other events. This event involves between six and eight riders following a small motorbike the Derny around the m track for 5. The bike pulls off with 2. Hoy had previously competed at the keirin in various events but one of his first major successes was at the round of the World Cup Classics Series inshortly before the World Championships, where he also won, ahead of his teammate . This showed that Hoy was developing from just a pure power sprinter, in events like the Kilo and Team Sprint, into also being one of the best in the world at more tactical sprinting events such as the keirin [11] and the individual sprint. On 12 MayHoy attempted the world record for the kilometre. He fell 0. He set a record for the m flying start at Hoy set the sea-level kilometre record of 1 minute 0. The outright record of At the time, only 3 Heroes kilos had ever been ridden; Hoy recorded two of these over two days in . Hoy's main achievement is his development in the individual sprint event considered to be the blue riband event of track cycling. Previously, Hoy had competed in the sprint at various World Cup events and Revolution meetings in Manchester, but it was not one of his main events and he did not compete in it at the World Championships or the Olympics. Sireau was the World Cup Classics points winner for the season and had defeated Hoy 2—0 in their previous meeting only a few weeks earlier. However, with the vocal Manchester crowd behind him Hoy was not to be denied victory and he completed the win 2—0, the first British man to win the sprint title in 52 years since . Hoy became the first British Olympian for years to claim three golds at one games at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. This came when he won the men's keirin, the men's team sprint and also the men's individual sprint. He instead made an appearance to sign autographs and commentate with the BBC. He received a standing ovation from the Manchester faithful at the start of the event when he was introduced to the crowd. Hoy competed in the World Cup Classics series' final Heroes in CopenhagenDenmark in February, helping his team to Heroes gold medal in the team sprint event. However, he crashed out during the men's Keirin final and was forced to miss the final day of competition, including the men's sprint. Although at first, his injury seemed minor, he returned to Manchester where, following a scan, he was diagnosed with a serious de-gloving injury which finished his season and kept him off his bike for almost 3 months. He had to pull out of the World Championships in Poland at the end of March, where he would have attempted to defend 2 World titles, because of the hip injury. He then went into day 2 of the competition and took gold in the sprint event, beating fellow Brit Matthew Crampton in the final 2—0. Having ridden and won 12 events over the weekend, he withdrew from the International Japanese Keirin which was consequently won by Crampton. Heroes was part of the GB men's team sprint that took the bronze. In the Keirin event, Hoy won the gold medal, despite crashing in the heats, to take his tenth world title. Hoy lost in the first round of the men's sprint at the European Championships to Ireland's Felix English. He won gold in the keirin and bronze in the team sprint, before winning gold in the Men's Sprint, losing just one race in four rounds. Hoy was an ambassador for the Olympic Games in London. Hoy led Team GB out as the team's flag carrier at the opening ceremony. On 7 August Hoy won gold in the Keirin to overtake Sir and become the most successful British olympian ever, winning a total of 6 gold medals. This also made him the joint holder of most Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britains Track Cycling Revolution won by any British athlete in the Olympic Games Heroes fellow cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins. On 18 April Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling. He said he was very proud to have taken part in the transformation of the sport. InHoy published a children's book titled 'Be Amazing'. Hoy's interest in motorsport competition led him to contest the inaugural season of the SR1 Cup, scooping his first motorsport podium at Snetterton in the same season. Hoy took his first victory in international competition at the opening round of the at Silverstone where he drove a Ginetta - to a class win alongside team- mate Charlie Robertson. He subsequently competed at the at the London Olympic Stadiumreceiving a late invitation to race as part of Team All Stars in the Nations Cup alongside as a replacement for after the motorcyclist suffered leg burns as a result of post-race celebrations on his motorbike when he clinched that season's MotoGP title. He was the first Summer Olympic medallist to compete at Le Mans, [33] the ninth former Olympian to race there and the second Olympic champion to do so, after alpine skier Henri Oreiller. Hoy and his team-mates finished the race in 17th overall Heroes 12th [35] in class. Hoy unveiled the brand which bears his name in Novemberthree months after winning the double Olympic gold in London. The debut range included three road bikes and four city bikes, as well as a track bike. Hoy is married to Sarra Kemp, a lawyer from Edinburgh. They got married in at St Giles' Cathedral Heroes, Edinburgh. Hoy's autobiography was published in In that time he has devoted many hours to raising awareness of and funds for the mental health cause. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. British cyclist. Medal record. This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. Sports portal Olympics portal. Chris Hoy official website. . Archived from the original on 17 November The . Archived from the original on 19 February Retrieved 25 March Retrieved 20 August Retrieved 20 October Retrieved 12 December Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 8 May BBC . Retrieved 2 February BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 January The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 2 April Retrieved 19 August BBC News. Retrieved 7 March Retrieved 2 August Archived from the original on 17 December Retrieved 7 August Retrieved 18 April Retrieved 8 April Retrieved 12 April