SIR Chris Hoy has confirmed he will make a decision early next year on whether to continue to the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Speaking at the velodrome in Glasgow that bears his name, the six-time Olympic champion said it is still his hope to compete but that is entirely dependent on how his "body can hold on".
"Fingers crossed," he said. "I'm not looking too far ahead at the moment. I'm just getting back into training. I'm going out to Perth in December so I will be able to do some consistent training for the first time since the Games and get back into it. I can't wait."
This weekend, the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome played host to the UCI Track Cycling World Cup at which a star-studded British cycling contingent claimed a clutch of medals, including three golds. With Hoy, 36, on a break from international competition, though, there was a notable absence of Scots in the squad.
In contrast, Wales fielded six young riders, two of whom – Becky James and Elinor Barker – won gold medals on the opening day.
"We do have some quality riders [in Scotland]," said Hoy. "Callum Skinner would have been riding here but he broke his collarbone two weeks ago. It will take time, you can't just expect to bring riders from virtually club level up to GB team standard in a few months, but it will happen.
"The main challenge is to try to get some Scottish riders into the junior team for the world championships next year. That is the first focus."
"There is talent there," he added. "And we have no excuses now. We do have a facility they can train in all the time. They don't have to travel to Manchester or Newport. They can get access here seven days a week."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article