HOY TOLD: 'GET BACK ON BIKE'

Triple Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy has been asked to curtail his public appearances and get back to concentrating on riding his bike.

According to today's Scotland on Sunday, Hoy's manager Ricky Cowan was invited to a meeting at British Cycling's headquarters in Manchester, and was requested to limit Hoy's public appearances so that the track star can be back to his track training.

"I was called down to Manchester to discuss Chris's training regime," Cowan said. "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 okay two weeks ago has now been overruled by British Cycling, and the fact that he is competing and training with the team and individually is making things difficult."

Hoy's three gold medals have given the Scottish rider an unprecedented level of publicity in the UK, and he has been in demand from the media and sponsors, clamouring to get a piece of the star. He signed up the services of Max Clifford PR to handle the media attention.

Scotland on Sunday report that Hoy has signed several lucrative sponsorship deals with top British companies, including cereal manufacturer Kelloggs, British Telecom and High Spring water. Hoy has been in Majorca in recent weeks shooting a commercial for Kelloggs. Hoy receives £24,000 from British Cycling.

"It's my own choice to do these exciting things and have fun post-Olympics," Hoy said. "But now I've got to knuckle down and get back to training.

"I probably won't be doing any more publicity in the short term. I will be going back into cycling 100 per cent now. After the world championships [March 25-29, 2009] I will be able to do more."

Hoy won gold medals in the individual sprint, team sprint and keirin at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He has won this year's Sports Journalists' Association Sportsman of the Year award and is one of the finallists for this year's BBC Sportsperson of the Year.

RELATED LINKS

Race of Champions: Hoy vs Hamilton

Hoy believes Hamilton may pip him to BBC prize

Chris Hoy scholarship programme launched