Chris Hoy

“Mum was a nurse and worked night shifts, but cooked all our evening meals and breakfasts.”

“I discovered in Melbourne how wonderful it is to be part of a successful team, when good morale spreads throughout the squad, among athletes and coaches and infects you like a virus - but one that you want to catch.”

“I'm a bit rubbish at everything apart from cycling.”

“The road which can be quite an allure when you are young.”

“It sounds so innocuous but the difference between 99 percent and 100 percent is huge. You can finish at 99 percent and you'll be hurting but if you push a tiny bit more - and that's the bit that makes the difference to your training - your legs just grind to a halt. It's like your engine is seizing up.”

“My big travel bugbear is Manchester Airport because getting through Terminal Three, as I have to do quite a lot, is a nightmare.”

“My wife Sarra was instrumental to my success. When I was training, she took care of everything. She would make me dinner and always understood when I had to go to bed early or couldn't walk around the shops.”

“Well, having a pint is not going to stop you from winning a gold medal, but for me the question was 'is this going to help me win a gold medal?' if the answer was no, I'd cut it.”

“Cycling is low-impact, which is why people cycle into their 70s or 80s, but track cycling means hard gym work and crashes.”

“Getting fit and eating well doesn't always seem easy. But at the end of day when you start to see a difference, you will feel a sense of achievement and accomplishment.”

“For Le Mans, you still have to keep fit, it's endurance. It's a different type of fitness. You want to actually fit in the car - the seats are ridiculously small.”

“Of all the sportsmen I've ever met, cyclists are the nicest.”

“A lot of my training focused not just on the exercise but my diet.”

“It might seem ludicrously simple, but the obvious answer to what to wear on your bike is whatever that helps you enjoy cycling.”

“All the support and opportunity started and then Le Mans became the pipe dream, the thing to aim for, the end of the rainbow.”

“If you don't have a massage therapist on hand, then a foam roller can do the work instead.”

“I am sure in the long run cycling will continue to grow and flourish - not just in the U.K. but all around the world.”

“In terms of actual day-to-day training; a normal training day would begin with a gym session for about two hours, focusing on strength; so heavy weights on the lower body, with the main exercise being free weight squatting, with between one and ten repetitions depending on the time of year and the aim of the session.”

“Cycling taught me to recognize that mental health is on a sliding scale. Some days you are up and some days you are down.”

“If I don't do anything for two or three days in a row, I feel really grumpy. My mood changes.”