Q & A with Olympic, World & Commonwealth Champ Sir Chris Hoy

1. You’ve missed this round of the World Cup for the past couple of years. Why is it important that you make the trip this year?

“We're looking to try and score as many points as possible this season to secure qualification for London 2012 as early as we can. This means I'll be attending the World Cups in Melbourne, Cali and Manchester plus the World Championships in Holland. The simplest way for us to qualify GB a place in all three sprint events is through the team sprint, as each country automatically gets a sprint and keirin place when they qualify a team sprint place.”

2. Who do you see as your main threat in Melbourne and in the lead up to London 2012?

“I tend not to worry too much about my rivals as it's a pointless exercise and just ends up as a waste of energy. I try to focus on the things that are within my control, like making sure I train as hard as I can in every single session, staying injury free and peaking at the right time of the season. I expect to have good form at the Melbourne World Cup, having ridden a 9.99s for 200m recently, but anything can happen in the races (as I found out in Poland!) and there will no doubt be a really strong field from the Australians and the rest of the world.  I know I'll have to be firing on all cylinders to make it onto the top step of the podium.”

3. Has your early exit in the Sprint at the European Championships increased the importance of the Melbourne Track World Cup in your Olympic qualification campaign? If so, can you please state why?

“Not really, no. Our Olympic qualification is centred around the Team Sprint, so individual performances in relation to qualifying GB places for London aren't hugely important in that respect. Obviously from a personal perspective I would have liked to have been successful in the sprint at the European Championships, but the reason for that was simply an error of judgement rather than a lack of form. I'm riding the sprint in Cali so look forward to getting my teeth into that event out there, but before then I've got the keirin and team sprint in Melbourne to focus on.”

4. With only one spot available per nation for the sprint and keirin events at London 2012, do you feel more pressure from Jason Kenny as opposed to riders from other nations?

“Again, I try not to let other riders' performances affect me negatively or make me feel pressurised, as there's nothing I can do about them. It's not as if there's only Jason Kenny performing well either; we have Matt Crampton, Dave Daniell, Ross Edgar and others too, so there is always a fight to earn your place on the team. I like it though, as it tends to create a really competitive training environment which I believe helps push us all on. It's always been that way; even years ago when I rode the kilo I had Jason Queally, Craig MacLean and Jamie Staff as team mates and rivals. At the end of the day you want your team mates to be fast as you'll be lining up alongside them in the team sprint.”

5. Psychologically, how important are victories at the Track World Cup over your rivals?

“A win is always good for the confidence, and I'm a big believer that morale is a huge factor in athletic performance. However, victories mid-season can sometimes be misleading because different riders approach their seasons in different ways. For example some riders may peak for a specific World Cup, whilst others may be deliberately training through a race, ie they won't be backing off from training prior to the event to freshen up. Sometimes you can beat a rival at a World Cup but by March they could be a much tougher prospect. So I never read too much into my rivals performances at World Cups. My approach is to use the World Cups as tests of form and I always go into them with realistic expectations based on how my training has been going at that time.”

6. Do you see this as the Commonwealth Games clash with the Australians that never happened?

“Not really, I think the Commonwealth Games are a unique one-off event which only happen once every four years, and you can't really replicate them. I was really disappointed not to be in Delhi to represent Scotland but I've accepted that and put it to bed. The Aussie team out there looked hugely impressive as always and are certainly going well at the moment. I expect them to be a formidable force in Melbourne and beyond, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm sure the rest of the British team are too.”