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Heroes, Villains and Velodromes

Monday, 16th June, 2008

Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy, the reigning Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion, has been instrumental in British track cycling’s remarkable transformation from also-rans to leading world superpower. Author Richard Moore shadows Hoy throughout the current season to provide a revealing insight into the hitherto guarded world of track cycling.

Heroes, Villains and Velodromes reveals how an elite athlete, Chris Hoy, lives, breathes and pushes the boundaries of his sport. How does he do it? And why? What drives him to put his body through the physical and mental hurdles to become the best in the world?

This is also the story of an extraordinary year in the life of an extraordinary sportsman and his team, one which started with his best-ever world championships in Mallorca – where, for the first time in his career, Hoy became a double world champion – continued with his attempt on the world kilometre record in La Paz, Bolivia, before returning to training and the 2008 world championships at the world-class Manchester velodrome in the build up to the Beijing Olympics.

By shadowing Hoy through a season with the British track cycling team, author Richard Moore has gained an unembellished insight into the mind of a world champion. He has also attained unprecedented levels of access to the key members of the all-conquering British team (which smashed all records and dominated the 2007 and 2008 world championships) and support staff, including top coaches, world-renowned psychiatrists, doctors (where the subject of drug abuse is an ever-present shadow) and the pivotal characters behind the scenes.

Combining his forensic knowledge of the cycling world with his acclaimed skills as a tenacious investigative journalist, Moore captures the mood of the British team and explores an area of professional sport that has rarely been seen before.

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Richard Moore is a freelance journalist who has written on sport, art and literature, contributing to the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Herald, Guardian and Sunday Times. He was a member of the Scotland team in the Prutour, the nine-day cycling tour of Britain, and represented Scotland in the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Richard is the author of the critically acclaimed In Search of Robert Millar, and the leading young writer in his field.