QUADRUPLE Olympic gold-medallist Chris Hoy has predicted London will have the "best facilities in the world" for more British cycling success at the Velopark in 2012.
The Scot – who led the way with three golds in Beijing, where Team GB's cyclists swept all before them – was at the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, yesterday as the plans for the new facilities were officially launched. A 6,000-seater velodro
me will be the centrepiece of the development, which will also be home to the BMX circuit. After the Games have finished in four years' time, the venue will be linked in to other cycle routes across London to help leave a legacy for the sport – which will include a one-mile road circuit as well as a six-kilometre mountain bike course for riders of all ages and abilities.
Hoy, who won gold in Athens and silver at the Sydney Olympics before his Beijing triumphs, has been involved in planning the new venue, giving an expert cyclist's viewpoint.
And the 32-year-old has been impressed by the final designs – which will include a glass concourse around the velodrome with the track set to be the fastest-ever built.
"To have been involved in the London Velopark is a great honour for me, and I am incredibly excited after looking at the designs and having now gone to the site itself to get a feel for the place," said Hoy, who also claimed the time-trial gold in Athens. "This is a golden era for cycling, and we are going to have this facility, which will be a jewel in the crown – the best in the world. I feel very fortunate I am going to ride in it and to be a part of it. Hopefully, we can use the springboard from Beijing to go on to bigger and better things as a team."
Hoy believes such facilities will not only stand Team GB – which already has a state-of-the-art facility at Manchester – in good stead to remain at the very pinnacle of the sport, but also help inspire the next generation.
He said: "My experiences in Beijing were incredible, and to come back to Britain to get some feel of how much interest there is here, and with the reception from everyone, it has been overwhelming. It just shows how exciting the next four years are going to be and how much passion there is for the Olympic Games in London. However, none of that would have happened for me had there not been a facility in Edinburgh (Meadowbank] when I first started track cycling and the legacy of what will happen after the Games is very important."
Hoy added: "There is more than enough interest in the sport now – young riders are calling out for these types of facilities and we will be able to have a number of centres around the whole of the UK which will have elite-level training."
Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee, maintains as well as producing gold medals in 2012, Britain's Games must produce a lasting sporting legacy. "The performance of Team GB cyclists in Beijing, and the on-going performance at the Paralympics, tells me this is a sport which can probably do more than most to drive the participation agenda which is just as important as part of the 2012 story," he said. "These plans for the Velopark will, in terms of a legacy, provide Londoners with facilities which they should have had for at least the last 50 years."
Lord Coe added: "The difference between this host city and previous host cities is that we are thinking about the future now – that is absolutely essential.
"Nobody in my team went to Singapore to bid for just 16 days of sport. We went there in the full knowledge that the population of cities hosting Games are much more sophisticated than that. They are simply not going to accept, as great as it will be, simply 16 days of sport without any sensible usage afterwards at every venue."
The full article contains 690 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
