Sir Chris Hoy to fulfil life-long goal when he takes on the gruelling Le Mans 24 hour race
The six-time Olympic champion will race on a very different track this weekend as he drives in the endurance race
SIR Chris Hoy will be fulfilling a life-long ambition today when he competes in the Le Mans 24 race.
The six-time Olympic champion will be swapping his bike for a different type of wheels as he takes on the endurance race.
Hoy says his desire to race the overnight Le Mans has been there since childhood.
"I remember getting a Scalextric track when I was five or six. One of the cars had headlights on it. I remember asking my dad why and he said: 'That’s for the Le Mans 24 Hour race – they race through the night.'"
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Comparisons will be made with Hoy's former GB team-mate Victoria Pendleton, who enjoyed success in her career change. Double-Olympic champion Pendleton took up horse racing and finished fifth in the Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham.
The 40-year-old says his main target for the gruelling race is just to make it to the finish line in his first attempt.
"It’s not so much the muscular fatigue, but the mental fatigue. It’s nothing like being on a bike where your body is exhausted – here it’s your brain which reaches that exhaustion point. It’s mentally similar [to cycling], it’s the focus required for an extended period of time.
"I would love to just make it to the finish line, and to finish the 24 hours on my first attempt would be great. People say that if you’re still moving after 24 hours, you’ll be in the top 10 anyway, you’ve just got to stay out of trouble and be consistent."
