Book review: Chris Hoy, The Autobiography

Chris Hoy is a four-time Olympic Champion track cyclist and part of the UK track cycling dominance phenomenon that Lyle McDonald mentioned recently on his discussion of US Weightlifting.  This is his autobiography (affiliate links: UK, US).

Hoy: 93kg bodyweight, 227.5kg back squat

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OK, so can he write?

Hoy writes well and he doesn’t waste the readers’ time on endless discussions of various unknown family members and his own childhood.  He jumps straight in with an account of his own (mis)-spent youth on the BMX track, a sport at which he excelled.

After that brief introduction, we are catapulted into Hoy’s cycling career, which, as Lyle McDonald has recently pointed out, is inextricably linked to the lottery funding of UK track cycling.

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So what happens?

Hoy started cycling seriously on the track in his last few years at school in Edinburgh.  He went to St. Andrews to read physics and maths but soon decided it was not the right course for him.  Interestingly, I had almost exactly the same experience…

Returning home, he was fortunate enough to be there at the moment that track cycling attracted funding and with that he was a sponsored athlete.  I am sure it was not as simple as that but there it is.

There is some discussion at this point of Hoy’s training.  He talks about the unusual methods that they tried, including adding resistance to bikes, causing them to weigh up to 50kg at some points.

More conventionally, he hit the weights room hard for improving cycling performance, building up to a 227.5kg back squat at 93kg bodyweight.  In the light of this, the sheer number of people I see commenting on cycling forums that weights have no place in a cycling routine just staggers me…

And in 1997, he rode in his first World Cup and was lucky enough to share a room with Graeme Obree, the legendary world champion and hour record holder.  Hoy was much affected by the philosophy of the great endurance cyclist, which he summarises as follows:

• If you want something badly enough, you can will it to happen
• Determination, desire, dedication and a steadfast refusal to accept the expectations that others might have of you are infinitely more important than natural talent
• You always think you are at your limit and that you can’t go any harder.  Just when you think that – push a bit harder.
• Winning is like holding your hand in the fire.  It’s a case of who can deal with the pain for the longest. 

The Olympics 

Hoy explains how the UK track cycling team performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he took silver as part of the team sprint.  He then goes on to explain the dynamics of the training that took Team GB to the Athens Olympics in 2004, where he took Gold in the 1km individual time trial.

Unfortunately, the 1km individual time trial was dropped from the programme for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and a lesser man might have thrown in the towel.  Not Hoy, though.  He moved into other events and took golds in the individual sprint, the team sprint and the Keirin.

The book concludes on this high point, as Hoy does the media thing and gives interviews after his great success.

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What next?

Well, it seems that the great man has been knighted – that’s Sir Chris Hoy to you – and he has a velodrome named after him.  It also looks like he is still intending to ride in the 2012 Olympics, which are due to be held in London.  And I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to cheer him on…