British track cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy is an 11-time world and six-time Olympic champion who has been a UCI Track Champions League ambassador since the start alongside Kristina Vogel.
We caught up with Chris to find out more about what that ambassador role entails, how he helped shape the quick-fire race format, and his thoughts on the upcoming season:
Chris, what did you think when the idea of the UCI Track Champions League was first put to you, and its goal of evolving track cycling?
I’m all for tradition and I love being able to compare things era to era, but equally, the world changes and you have to adapt to it. Looking at the UCI Track Champions League, I think for years track cycling was crying out for a showcase event that brought together the very best riders in the world, and condensed the action into an audience-friendly format so that anyone could tune in and understand what’s going on. The UCI Track Champions League has achieved that.
The series is great for the riders too. The sprinters doing lots of three-up sprints as opposed to the traditional two, and the lack of recovery time, it challenges them in a different way. All the riders that have been part of it have relished the challenge, and those who haven’t yet are desperate to make the cut.
How did you first get involved?
My initial role was to act as a rider liaison and to put forward ideas from a riders’ perspective. On paper you can just cut down recovery time between races, make the competition TV friendly, but it’s no use if the athletes physically can’t sustain that schedule, so you have to be realistic in what they can do, while also creating something that’s exciting both for the riders and the fans.
What do you think about the Rounds taking place week-after-week before the double-header in London as a Grand Finale?
I think the advantage is there’s continuity in the dense format so you carry the form, and it’s bringing everyone together for five back-to-back rounds. You might only get to race against someone like Harrie Lavreysen or Mathilde Gros once at a UCI World Cup, but if you get lucky – or unlucky, depending how you look at it – you could be racing them four or five times in a month at the UCI Track Champions League.
And that brings an opportunity to try new things.
Exactly. You’re racing at this really high level week in, week out, but I feel like there’s less on the line. There can be a bit of fear and a lot of pressure at an Olympic Games or UCI World Championships, but at the UCI Track Champions League you get the feeling the riders can relax a little more, enjoy the competition and try new tactics without the fear of blowing the season.
The more you race at a high level against the best riders, the more you raise your game and learn from racing each other. There’s a lot to be said for getting that momentum going, that consistency of competition. As a rider I’d have loved to have that opportunity.
What’s your favourite part of your role on race weekend?
The moment the lights go down and there’s that amazing laser show, it’s such a fantastic spectacle. Then we’re live, we’re on air, and the adrenaline that you get from being on live TV. And as you’re standing there doing your work, you get to enjoy seeing the best athletes in the world competing on that stage, so it is without doubt the racing itself, and being part of that in a small way.
Was there anything that particularly surprised you about the first two seasons?
I think the presentation is a level above what we were expecting, it’s spectacular and is setting the standard for other championships. I love the wearable tech that we can see on the riders, we can see how they’re recovering or not recovering, and we can learn more about them with real-time power and heart-rate data.
But I think what surprised me most is just how quickly the riders adapted to this new challenge, and I think the word has spread and everybody’s desperate to be part of it, especially in an Olympic year.
I was going to ask how the Olympics might change the approach to this season.
An Olympic year is a unique challenge. Usually you would be doing a strength block in that November-December period, but I think there are advantages to racing at that time of year. Not least that you have the opportunity to gain that psychological advantage over some of your main competitors if you can expose a chink in their armour, put the idea of defeat in their head. And just getting the chance to race on the Olympic velodrome in St-Quentin-En-Yvelines. You can’t underestimate how important familiarity is in a competition environment.
Ultimately, they’re all racers. This is another opportunity to race in front of a packed audience, to experience the adrenaline and the energy of the crowds, so I think that outweighs the potential pitfalls.
What are you most looking forward to about the coming season?
There was a big step forward from season one to season two, and I’m expecting a similar progression for this year, in both the organisation and the competition. There’s always a new name that bursts through and puts pressure on the established stars, like Matthew Richardson last season.
Are there any particular rivalries you anticipate?
I’m looking forward to seeing what Azizul Awang can do in the men’s Sprint category. He’s one of the biggest sport stars in Malaysia, and like a fine wine he’s improving with age. He will put pressure on the likes of Harrie Lavreysen and Matthew Richardson.
We saw new names breaking through at the UCI World Championships, like Britain’s Emma Finucane becoming UCI World Sprint champion aged 20. She benefited from racing the UCI Track Champions League last year, so I’m hoping she’ll keep that momentum going. But there are so many new names coming onto the scene with the 2024 Paris Olympic Games around the corner, and it’s just going to be electric.
Find out more about the 2023 UCI Track Champions League, and how to book tickets, by clicking here.
