Injury rehab bid forces Hoy to miss out on Tournant joust

Published on Saturday 21 February 2009 09:30

SIR CHRIS HOY will reluctantly miss a final opportunity to lock horns with long-time rival Arnaud Tournant at the Revolution Meeting in Manchester tonight, writes COLIN RENTON.

The Capital star had hoped that his recovery from the injuries sustained when he crashed in Copenhagen last week might have healed sufficiently to allow him to race against the Frenchman who is making his farewell appearance before retiring. But, although he is making good progress, Hoy has not yet been back in the saddle and will focus on regaining full fitness in time for the World Championships in Poland next month.

"The injury rehab is going well and I'm fairly happy at the moment. I'll be doing some very easy pedalling at the start of next week and I should be back in training by the end of the week," said Hoy.

"My knee's fine, but there's some fluid to be drained off the area around my right hip – hopefully once this has been done it will be a lot less painful." Having just returned from a successful five-week spell of warm weather training in Australia, he had hoped to use last weekend's competition to gauge his fitness.

However, he admits that the crash means he faces a race against the clock to defend the individual sprint and Keirin world titles he won in Manchester last year.

"In terms of my final preparation for the World Championships at the end of March, this has obviously put a bit of a spanner in the works to a certain degree."