Hoy confirms plans for world record attempt

By Ben Abrahams

The one kilometre time trial may have been scrapped from the 2008 Beijing Olympics but that isn’t stopping current Olympic and world champion Chris Hoy from planning an attempt at the world record in Bolivia next year.

Speaking to Cyclingnews at the recent Track World Cup in Sydney, Hoy acknowledged that plans for the record were still being finalised: "At this early stage we’re just trying to get the funding in place so it’ll probably be mid-May but there’s so many things to sort out. I’m just trying to let my management team sort it out and I’ll focus on the training part."

The high-altitude ‘Velodromo Alto Irpavi’ near Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, has been the setting for numerous records including Arnaud Tournant’s current world best of 58.875 seconds set in October 2001.

Hoy, whose Olympic record of 1.00.711 is the fastest time ever at sea level, believes that if he can recapture his blistering Athens form, then breaking the record is a definite possibility. "All I can really gauge it on is Arnaud’s performances before he broke the world record. He was doing 1.01s at sea level beforehand which I can do as well. But because the track’s on a different level altogether it’s very hard to make comparisons," he said.

"All I know is that if I’m going to break it anywhere then that’s the place to do it," added Hoy. "So all I can do really is try and get myself in the same shape or better than I was in Athens and step up there and just give it everything."

Look out for a full feature on this story later in the week.