Exclusive: Chris Hoy says UCI World Championships 'feel more like a mini Olympic Games'

ByEurosport

Published 08/08/2023 at 16:55 GMT

Chris Hoy admits he is finding it hard to keep up with Great Britain's medal count at this year's UCI World Championships. The UCI World Championships are taking place at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland, which was built after Hoy became the most successful Olympic cyclist in history with six golds at the London 2012 Games. He says this year's edition feels like a 'mini Games'.

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Sir Chris Hoy says the UCI World Championships feels like a mini Olympic Games amid an exciting start to this year's competition.

The world's greatest riders have been battling it out in 13 world championships across seven disciplines with the track cycling taking place at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland.

Great Britain are clear at the top of the medal table with 19 in total.

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On Monday, Great Britain won four gold medals. Neah Evans and Elinor Barker were crowned world Madison champions. Kieran Reilly won another gold, claiming the rainbow jersey with "a run I will remember forever" on home soil in Glasgow and Ethan Vernon recovered from a crash to win the men's elimination race.

The performance of Great Britain will give the team great confidence heading into the Paris 2024 Olympics, and Hoy believes the competition is being treated by the riders like the Games itself.

"Everybody is excited [for the rest of the tournament]," Hoy told Eurosport in an exclusive interview.

"It feels more like a mini Games than just a World Championships and everyone that has got a ticket feels privileged to be sitting here witnessing history.

"The shape of the track and velodrome, it kind of reflects the sound back in. Everyone is paying attention and cheers at the same time.

"Even though there is only going to be 3,000 or 4,000 people here [on Tuesday] the noise is off the scale."

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Six-time Olympic gold medallist and 11-time world champion Hoy struggled to pick out just one moment from this year's UCI World Championships and says it is "hard to keep up" with Great Britain's gold rush.

"There have been so many highlights," he said.

"The men's pursuit final was an epic one that we will be talking about for years when Filippo Ganna came back from a 2.3 second deficit to win over the last two laps. That was incredible.

"Katie Archibald and the GB team pursuit, winning gold after the year Katie had last year. That was amazing, the reception she got from the audience.

"Even [Ethan] Vernon in the elimination, that was pretty exciting too. There have been so many highlights. I don't want to pick out one. Even the tandems with Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham was pretty spectacular.

"There have been so many British medals and gold medals you almost can't keep up."