Exclusive: Chris Hoy says UCI World Championships ‘feel more like a mini Olympic Games’

Sir Chris Hoy says the UCI World Championships feels like a mini Olympic Games amid an exciting start to this year’s competition.

The world’s greatest riders have been battling it out in 13 world championships across seven disciplines with the track cycling taking place at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland.

Great Britain are clear at the top of the medal table with 19 in total.

The performance of Great Britain will give the team great confidence heading into the Paris 2024 Olympics, and Hoy believes the competition is being treated by the riders like the Games itself.

“Everybody is excited [for the rest of the tournament],” Hoy told Eurosport in an exclusive interview.

“It feels more like a mini Games than just a World Championships and everyone that has got a ticket feels privileged to be sitting here witnessing history.

“The shape of the track and velodrome, it kind of reflects the sound back in. Everyone is paying attention and cheers at the same time.

“Even though there is only going to be 3,000 or 4,000 people here [on Tuesday] the noise is off the scale.”

Six-time Olympic gold medallist and 11-time world champion Hoy struggled to pick out just one moment from this year’s UCI World Championships and says it is “hard to keep up” with Great Britain’s gold rush.

“There have been so many highlights,” he said.

“Even [Ethan] Vernon in the elimination, that was pretty exciting too. There have been so many highlights. I don’t want to pick out one. Even the tandems with Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham was pretty spectacular.

“There have been so many British medals and gold medals you almost can’t keep up.”