? Hoy again beaten by Jason Kenny in latest meeting
? Olympic champion could miss out on single 2012 sprint place
Sir Chris Hoy has acknowledged that he must work on his tactical awareness if he is to have a chance of racing in defence of his Olympic sprint title in London in less than six months.
On Saturday evening, Hoy lost the Revolution sprint at the Manchester velodrome to the Olympic silver medallist Jason Kenny and, with the London World Cup and track world championships on the horizon, he afterwards told the Guardian that his tactical approach needs to improve, and fast.
"That's the one thing I have to do, not even between now and the Olympics, but between now and the world championships because if I don't get it right at the world championships I won't be riding the sprint at the Olympics. That's the important thing." There is one place per nation available in the match sprint ? as opposed to two at Beijing ? and the contest between Kenny and Hoy is delicately poised after the younger rider beat the Scot to claim the world title in March last year.
Since Hoy's triumphant triple in Beijing his rival sprinters have had to adapt their tactics to deal with the Scot's main asset, his ability to produce a devastating burst of speed over the final lap; one example was the early move that the German Robert Forsterman produced to catch Hoy napping in the 2010 world championship, another being the unexpected jump from Kenny on Saturday night, a lap and a half out. That, says Hoy, is in itself a tribute to his reputation. "Iain Dyer [sprint head coach] was saying I could take it as a backhanded compliment.
"Riding a traditional sprint race as you would do from the front or the back, up against me, if I'm at the back then there's a good chance I'll come past them with the extra speed at the end and so they're looking for different ways to beat me. But that's no excuse. You have to know that's how they're going to approach the racing. The most important thing in the sprint is it doesn't matter how fast you qualify, you've got to race well.
"It's a challenge for the coaches as well, they need to really scratch their heads to assist me to ride to my strengths."
Hoy will be among the names announced early this week in the Great Britain team for the track World Cup round at the London Olympic velodrome on 16-19 February. As the sprint squad is narrowed down, there is unlikely to be a place for his fellow Olympic gold medallist Jason Queally, who returned to the sprint team last summer in a bid to gain selection for London, at the age of 42. That dream outcome no longer looks on the cards.
"After London our options will get more narrow and it will be hard for Jason to find a route back after then," said Dyer on Saturday. "He is still training with us and it is going OK but it will be hard for him." Hoy's fellow Scot, the Beijing keirin silver medallist, Ross Edgar, has been training for the man-one slot for the last two years, and has begun to show well in training in spite of a recent injury, and Kenny's start-lap time on Saturday night indicates he has lost none of his speed in that initial effort.
Dyer is also hinting that the European keirin champion, Matt Crampton, is coming into the picture as a possible man-two, which leaves the Britons with several options. Their key priority, however, is to put the strong man, Hoy, in the man-three position, where he is the best in the world.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/29/chris-hoy-improve-tactical-awareness
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