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Written by TopGear.com
This Sunday on BBC Two at 9pm, a special, one-off documentary will air which maps out the journey Sir Chris Hoy took from the velodrome to la Sarthe."My dad bought me the Le Mans edition Scalextric when I was five or six," cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy told TopGear.com a while back. "I had to ask my dad why these cars had lights, and he said because they race in the night in the 24 hour race at Le Mans". I never dreamt that I"d actually get the chance to race here."And race there, he most certainly did. After scaling the lofty heights of British cycling he"s the first British Olympian to win six gold medals Sir Chris Hoy didn"t really take to the retired life. Instead, he decided to transfer his considerable determination and see out a childhood dream: competing at the world"s hardest, most demanding 24hr race. Le Mans.Why, though, take on an entirely new discipline on a notoriously difficult circuit? "It"s special because of the history of it," Sir Chris says. "It allows amateur drivers to race side-by-side with some of the best professional racing drivers in the world."On the hardest thing about Le Mans"The lack of time that you get in the car. I"d say it"s a bit like trying to learn a musical instrument but only getting the chance to play it three times a month. Most of the work I did was done virtually in a simulator, because you"d only get one or two test days on the track every couple of months and then you"re racing on tracks that you"ve never been to before."Even Le Mans itself is only open for that one week a year so you can"t go down there and practice."On how it compares to cycling"The biggest challenge is the extreme level of concentration. It"s the mental exhaustion: you get out of the car after a two-and-a-half hour stint, and you"re absolutely soaking wet from sweat, your brain is just frazzled and you"re exhausted mentally."Physically your muscles aren"t aching, not like they are after racing on the bike, but it"s the mental focus that you"ve got to maintain for those extreme lengths of time and that"s what is so tough about it. Then there"s the lack of sleep and having to do it again 3 to 4 hours later."On the moments just before the race starts"When you"re finally standing there and you"re waiting to get into the car, when you"ve got all your kit on, you can hear on the radio that there"s one lap to go before he comes in to hand the car over to you, you"ve just got adrenaline coursing through your veins.
Date written: 7 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5341
This Sunday on BBC Two at 9pm, a special, one-off documentary will air which maps out the journey Sir Chris Hoy took from the velodrome to la Sarthe."My dad bought me the Le Mans edition Scalextric when I was five or six," cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy told TopGear.com a while back. "I had to ask my dad why these cars had lights, and he said because they race in the night in the 24 hour race at Le Mans". I never dreamt that I"d actually get the chance to race here."And race there, he most certainly did. After scaling the lofty heights of British cycling he"s the first British Olympian to win six gold medals Sir Chris Hoy didn"t really take to the retired life. Instead, he decided to transfer his considerable determination and see out a childhood dream: competing at the world"s hardest, most demanding 24hr race. Le Mans.Why, though, take on an entirely new discipline on a notoriously difficult circuit? "It"s special because of the history of it," Sir Chris says. "It allows amateur drivers to race side-by-side with some of the best professional racing drivers in the world."On the hardest thing about Le Mans"The lack of time that you get in the car. I"d say it"s a bit like trying to learn a musical instrument but only getting the chance to play it three times a month. Most of the work I did was done virtually in a simulator, because you"d only get one or two test days on the track every couple of months and then you"re racing on tracks that you"ve never been to before."Even Le Mans itself is only open for that one week a year so you can"t go down there and practice."On how it compares to cycling"The biggest challenge is the extreme level of concentration. It"s the mental exhaustion: you get out of the car after a two-and-a-half hour stint, and you"re absolutely soaking wet from sweat, your brain is just frazzled and you"re exhausted mentally."Physically your muscles aren"t aching, not like they are after racing on the bike, but it"s the mental focus that you"ve got to maintain for those extreme lengths of time and that"s what is so tough about it. Then there"s the lack of sleep and having to do it again 3 to 4 hours later."On the moments just before the race starts"When you"re finally standing there and you"re waiting to get into the car, when you"ve got all your kit on, you can hear on the radio that there"s one lap to go before he comes in to hand the car over to you, you"ve just got adrenaline coursing through your veins.
Date written: 7 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5341
