Top 50 Chris Hoy Quotes

It sounds so innocuous but the difference between 99 percent and 100 percent is huge. You can finish at 99 percent and you’ll be hurting but if you push a tiny bit more – and that’s the bit that makes the difference to your training – your legs just grind to a halt. It’s like your engine is seizing up.

The Manchester games in 2002 was the breakthrough for me because I won my first individual Gold medal and that gave me the confidence to maybe think I could be a world beater.

Mum was a nurse and worked night shifts, but cooked all our evening meals and breakfasts.

I certainly had no natural ability as a cyclist!

I’m still like that kid who loves being involved in bikes.

You don’t know how your body is going to shape up. It’s whether you can maintain the performance – or improve it – without getting injured. That’s the battle every athlete faces and the older you get the harder it becomes.

I’m writing kid’s books, I’m doing endurance racing with Le Mans and designing bikes. I’ve also got my own range of cycling clothing.

It doesn’t matter what your target is, write down your goal and then plan how you are going to achieve it.

As an elite athlete, I trained to win. Training was at times brutal – it has to be when you want to represent your country and to be the world’s best.

Cycling taught me to recognize that mental health is on a sliding scale. Some days you are up and some days you are down.

I used to row as a junior for Scotland but I was never massive, I was always tall and rangey.

Usually in the evenings, I go for a one-hour road session for a gentle recovery road ride. It’s a really steady stint with the main focus being to loosen the body down.

Whatever sport I played – rugby, rowing – there were always naturally talented people who were better than me.

Whether you are aware of it or not, if you eat right then you are giving yourself the best chance of defending against illness.

It might seem ludicrously simple, but the obvious answer to what to wear on your bike is whatever that helps you enjoy cycling.

We all have limitations in different forms. It could be financial, health-wise, work, family, whatever – there are things on the surface that limit what you can do.

The road which can be quite an allure when you are young.

I’d love to see Will Ferrell play me in a spoof track cycling movie.

You know how hard you work. You know what you put into it. You want to win more than anything else. So the disappointment at the end is not because of anything other than being frustrated with yourself.

I’ve become Olympic champion six times and I’ve never taken a performance-enhancing drug in my life, but I was lucky in that I never even had the choice. I never had pressure and I never had a person come to me saying, ‘You should do this.’

Every organization has a responsibility to stamp out bullying and discrimination. From what I read and understand through various conversations, British Cycling recognize they’ve fallen short in a number of areas.

I know when I’m on good form there’s no one in the world I can’t beat.

If you stop and think about it before you compete, you would freeze. If you think about the millions of people watching, the expectation, the consequences of winning, of losing, it’s a massive moment in your life.

Of course I don’t expect people to call me Sir Chris. That’d be embarrassing.

I used to build ramps in my back garden. It was more about having a bit of fun than racing.

I have had an amazing life traveling the world and competing, doing what I love.

Having a fall, breaking your wrist, that could be the week before the Olympics. That is why sport is always exciting.

Someone like Jessica Ennis-Hill having her first baby then bouncing back to become world champion in the space of the year. I maybe wouldn’t have appreciated just how big an achievement that was until I had my own child. It’s an incredible thing.

Decent cycling clothing today is designed with reflective strips or subtle detailing that is visible under streetlights or in car headlights. You’ll find that you can be seen just as well as you would in a builder’s fluorescent vest.

The biggest challenge is trying to be in two, or even three, places at once.

I loved going to our winter training camps in Perth, Western Australia, when I was competing as a cyclist.

All the support and opportunity started and then Le Mans became the pipe dream, the thing to aim for, the end of the rainbow.

I made a comment saying that it was ‘mad’ that I’m getting a knighthood for riding a bike but I meant mad as in unbelievable.

I’m not saying having one pint will stop you from winning but you don’t want to finish a race disappointed with your performance and then remember that beer you had one day.

If I smell a burger stand I get nervous. It takes me back to BMX tracks as a kid.

The uptake of people getting involved in cycling is partly down to the big success the team has had in the Tour de France, the Olympics and the World Championships.

It is an important competition and I certainly rate my gold medals at the Commonwealth Games right up there with my world titles and my Olympic titles.

I’m a bit rubbish at everything apart from cycling.

My wife Sarra was instrumental to my success. When I was training, she took care of everything. She would make me dinner and always understood when I had to go to bed early or couldn’t walk around the shops.

Of all the sportsmen I’ve ever met, cyclists are the nicest.

There are days when we will all feel a bit down but that doesn’t mean you have bad mental health. Recognizing this and being able to chat to others about your feelings is key.

If you don’t have a massage therapist on hand, then a foam roller can do the work instead.

For me, the most important consideration is to choose attire that is functional, but looks stylish too. That means going for colors that are understated and use smart fabrics.

My big travel bugbear is Manchester Airport because getting through Terminal Three, as I have to do quite a lot, is a nightmare.

Certainly for me the Commonwealth Games were fantastic to compete in and I genuinely have so many great memories of the three I went to.

Athletes are some of the most insecure people on the planet.

As the lead rider in the team you always have to keep your eyes on the team you’re pursuing – it’s called the pursuit for good reason.

I would love to be able to fly.

In terms of actual day-to-day training; a normal training day would begin with a gym session for about two hours, focusing on strength; so heavy weights on the lower body, with the main exercise being free weight squatting, with between one and ten repetitions depending on the time of year and the aim of the session.

The Commonwealth Games have their critics, though I suspect that they are generally people who haven’t experienced them.