LONDON — Britain's most successful Olympian Chris Hoy is to retire from track cycling having exhausted “every last ounce of effort and energy”, the six-time Games gold medal winner said Thursday. Hoy, 37, has decided against competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in his native Scotland. “I am officially announcing my retirement. It was not a decision I took easily or lightly, but I know it's the right decision,” Hoy told a news conference in Edinburgh. “Nothing would give me more pleasure than going to Glasgow, but I don't want to be there for the numbers. Being objective, I got every last drop out in London. Now it's time for younger riders to experience what it is like to compete in front of a home crowd.” Hoy won his first Olympic gold in the 1km time trial at the Athens Games in 2004 and followed up four years later by winning three in Beijing in the team sprint, keirin and sprint, the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold at one Games. Last year in London he secured two more golds in the team sprint, helping clock a world record time, and keirin to overtake rower Sir Steve Redgrave as the Briton with the most gold medals. Fellow British cyclist Bradley Wiggins has also won seven Olympic medals with Hoy ahead of the Tour de France winner on ‘gold difference'. In a stellar and long track career that helped spearhead British dominance in the sport, Hoy also won a silver medal in the team sprint at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and 11 world titles. The two sporting Sirs (Hoy and Redgrave) also shared a maniacal approach to training, going beyond the pain barrier day after day, year after year to put themselves in positions to win races by tiny margins. Hoy's interval sessions on a stationary bike have become the stuff of legend in cycling circles. His preferred approach was to set up his “turbo trainer” alongside a mattress so that when he had driven himself beyond exhaustion he could literally fall off the bike. — Agencies
