Wolf pack

Hoy, who started out on a second-hand girl's bike given to him by his neighbour but promptly broke it, is the figurehead of British cycling's golden generation.

Started when Chris Boardman won the first gold medal by a Briton for 70 years at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the baton passed to Hoy in the new millenium.

Sydney in 2000 was where Hoy first made his mark on the Olympics by winning team sprint silver before world championship success two years later and a first Olympic gold in 2004.

British cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford said after the Beijing Olympics that Hoy, who trains between 25-35 hours a week, has been the ideal leader.

"When there's a wobble in the team people stop and you can see all the people look at Chris. Then they look at what he does and they follow suit. It's a bit like a wolf pack.

"When something spooks all the wolves, they turn and look at the leader and they all stop. And then he does something - and that's Chris."

Britain's Hoy celebrates after winning gold in the men's Keirin at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, April 8, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Hoy says his phenomenal motivation to keep training as hard as he does at 36, considered old for track cyclists, is largely thanks to the moment when London won the Olympic Games.

"I was on the stage in Trafalgar Square in 2005 when the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that London had got the 2012 Games.

"Now that was seven years ago, when I was 29 and already veering towards middle age in track cycling terms. Anything could have happened since then, but on that day, on that stage, there was no doubt in my mind I'd be in London."

A further career highlight for Hoy, provided his body can cope with the demands, will be the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland where he hopes to scorch around the Glasgow velodrome that bears his name.

Until then the unassuming cycling supremo has rower Steve Redgrave's personal haul of five golds and one bronze in his sights.

Surpass Redgrave and Hoy will become Britain's most successful Olympian. Not that he would change one bit.

"Even if I won three golds in London, to take my tally up to seven, would that really diminish what he achieved? No, it would not. Steve is still a total hero of mine," is Hoy's typically modest and "very gentleman" take on things.