Olympic team-mates ready to go head-to-head for London spot
Sir Chris and Jason Kenny
Hoy and Kenny, British world leaders in track cycling, must work together to find a winning formula in the team sprint but compete against each other for the single place available in the individual event.
Olympic team-mates Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny are preparing to battle it out for individual places at the London Games.
Hoy is a four-time Olympic champion. Three of those titles were earned in Beijing four years ago, one in the team sprint after Kenny's late addition to the three-man squad transmuted a silver at the World Championships into Olympic gold.
But a second came in the individual sprint where the Scot and Kenny, from Bolton, were by far the best riders on the track. They met in the final and Hoy, just, was the best of British with Kenny taking silver.
In London, new rules allow only one entry from each country meaning if Kenny is picked for the latter, Hoy will miss out on the chance to defend one of his titles.
For the 35-year-old Edinburgh rider it is simple, with Hoy stating: "It's not about choosing to do all three, it's about earning your spot.
"So I'll race the best I can at the World Championships and if I earn the right to do all three, then I'll be delighted and I'll race them at the Olympics but there is no sure thing."
Kenny was promoted to world champion in the individual sprint earlier this year after the man who beat him, France's Gregory Bauge, was stripped of his 2011 titles following a doping offence.
But the 23-year-old shrugs off the suggestion this puts him in a better position than Hoy.
"It's a bit bizarre but it doesn't really change much," he said. "We're so far into our preparations for this year's worlds now and everyone is so focused on looking forwards, it's kind of 'what's done is done'."
Hoy and Kenny make an interesting pair - the Scot is among the country's highest profile sportsmen while Kenny is arguably Britain's lowest profile world and Olympic champion.
Differing media profiles
At last weekend's Revolution track meeting, the press waited in a gaggle for Hoy to address them at the end of the evening while Kenny went about his work mostly untroubled by the media.
"It's good for me because he soaks up all the media attention and he copes with it really well, better than anyone," Kenny said. "It means we can keep our head down."
Keeping his head down might be increasingly difficult for Kenny - he has the double pressure of trying to best Hoy and, if he succeeds, making sure the Olympic title stays in British hands.
"The good thing with training with Chris is you're training against someone who is consistently one of the very best in the world," Kenny said.
"On any day of the week he'd probably be top five, if not top three against anyone."
Choosing the best man for the individual event looks relatively straightforward next to the challenge of finding the third rider for the team sprint after the retirement of Jamie Staff, the third part of the Olympic gold-winning combination.
France and then the Germans have pushed the British into second or third place at each World Championships since Beijing.
But Hoy is optimistic a solution will be found and pointed to Kenny's emergence a few weeks before the Olympic training camp four years ago.
"He only just pipped Jason Queally and Craig MacLean and then he just seemed to be making these amazing improvements day by day," Hoy said
"And then at the Olympics, he was setting the fastest time in the world for the second lap in the team sprint."
First up for Hoy and Kenny is the London leg of the World Cup series in February, which will be the first event held in the new velodrome built in Stratford for the Olympics, and then March's World Championships in Melbourne.
Hoy added: "We're far from worried about the team sprint because all we can do is train the best we can, train smart, train hard, and we're doing that.
"We're putting in some horrendously hard training sessions right now which is why we're under the cosh but once we back off and freshen up for Melbourne, we'll get a decent benchmark.
"I'm not saying we're going to win it, but it's not out of the question. That will be our benchmark and then it's on to London."
Olympic team-mates ready to go head-to-head for London spot
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| Sir Chris and Jason Kenny |
Hoy and Kenny, British world leaders in track cycling, must work together to find a winning formula in the team sprint but compete against each other for the single place available in the individual event.
Olympic team-mates Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny are preparing to battle it out for individual places at the London Games.
Hoy is a four-time Olympic champion. Three of those titles were earned in Beijing four years ago, one in the team sprint after Kenny's late addition to the three-man squad transmuted a silver at the World Championships into Olympic gold.
But a second came in the individual sprint where the Scot and Kenny, from Bolton, were by far the best riders on the track. They met in the final and Hoy, just, was the best of British with Kenny taking silver.
In London, new rules allow only one entry from each country meaning if Kenny is picked for the latter, Hoy will miss out on the chance to defend one of his titles.
For the 35-year-old Edinburgh rider it is simple, with Hoy stating: "It's not about choosing to do all three, it's about earning your spot.
"So I'll race the best I can at the World Championships and if I earn the right to do all three, then I'll be delighted and I'll race them at the Olympics but there is no sure thing."
Kenny was promoted to world champion in the individual sprint earlier this year after the man who beat him, France's Gregory Bauge, was stripped of his 2011 titles following a doping offence.
But the 23-year-old shrugs off the suggestion this puts him in a better position than Hoy.
"It's a bit bizarre but it doesn't really change much," he said. "We're so far into our preparations for this year's worlds now and everyone is so focused on looking forwards, it's kind of 'what's done is done'."
Hoy and Kenny make an interesting pair - the Scot is among the country's highest profile sportsmen while Kenny is arguably Britain's lowest profile world and Olympic champion.
Differing media profiles
At last weekend's Revolution track meeting, the press waited in a gaggle for Hoy to address them at the end of the evening while Kenny went about his work mostly untroubled by the media.
"It's good for me because he soaks up all the media attention and he copes with it really well, better than anyone," Kenny said. "It means we can keep our head down."
Keeping his head down might be increasingly difficult for Kenny - he has the double pressure of trying to best Hoy and, if he succeeds, making sure the Olympic title stays in British hands.
"The good thing with training with Chris is you're training against someone who is consistently one of the very best in the world," Kenny said.
"On any day of the week he'd probably be top five, if not top three against anyone."
Choosing the best man for the individual event looks relatively straightforward next to the challenge of finding the third rider for the team sprint after the retirement of Jamie Staff, the third part of the Olympic gold-winning combination.
France and then the Germans have pushed the British into second or third place at each World Championships since Beijing.
But Hoy is optimistic a solution will be found and pointed to Kenny's emergence a few weeks before the Olympic training camp four years ago.
"He only just pipped Jason Queally and Craig MacLean and then he just seemed to be making these amazing improvements day by day," Hoy said
"And then at the Olympics, he was setting the fastest time in the world for the second lap in the team sprint."
First up for Hoy and Kenny is the London leg of the World Cup series in February, which will be the first event held in the new velodrome built in Stratford for the Olympics, and then March's World Championships in Melbourne.
Hoy added: "We're far from worried about the team sprint because all we can do is train the best we can, train smart, train hard, and we're doing that.
"We're putting in some horrendously hard training sessions right now which is why we're under the cosh but once we back off and freshen up for Melbourne, we'll get a decent benchmark.
"I'm not saying we're going to win it, but it's not out of the question. That will be our benchmark and then it's on to London."
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