Hoy shifts post-Olympic focus back to training

It's been a wild ride for Great Britain's Chris Hoy ever since the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, where he won gold and was one of Britain's top performers. He's been busy doing endorsements and taking a two-week vacation in Thailand, but British Cycling recent told Hoy's manager it was time for the star to shift his attention away from his publicity work and get back to focusing on training.

According to Scotland on Sunday, Hoy, who receives £24,000 in lottery cash annually, said there had been no conflict of interest, but he was delaying further publicity endeavors until following the UCI Track World Championships.

Hoy was in the difficult position of having to train for the upcoming World Championships in Poland in March while also taking advantage of the fleeting window for capitalizing on his Olympic Games success.

"It's my own choice to do these exciting things and have fun post-Olympics, but now I've got to knuckle down and get back to training," said Hoy, who reportedly signed eight deals worth up to two million pounds with sponsors after the Olympics.

"I was called down to Manchester to discuss Chris's training regime," said Manager Ricky Cowan to the Scottish publication. "He's very busy with training at the moment and he's also been doing filming for the Kellogg's advert. I've been told Chris needs to concentrate on his training now, and needs to cut back on what he's doing. What was OK two weeks ago has now been overruled by British Cycling... ."

"We all understand the position, and cycling has to be number one," said Cowan.

"Although he's been out of serious training, he's been doing quite a bit of stuff in between publicity work. It's wrong to think that he's stopped riding his bike for two or three months. But now he will be in the gym and on the bike every day for most of the day," said Gary Willis, performance manager and Scottish Cycling coach.