Hoy backs GB move for Obree

THERE is growing clamour within the all-conquering British cycling team to bring on board Graeme Obree, the inspirational Scottish former world champion, in a bid to ensure that the riders stay one step ahead of the rest of the world at the London Olympics in 2012.

With eight gold medals in cycling and 14 medals in the sport in total at these Games, Britain's riders have become the world leaders in their event, with innovative technology at the heart of the advances. Obree's rivalry with Chris Boardman in the mid-1990s propelled both riders to world titles and records, and the Scot's career was characterised by taking revolutionary approaches to bike design and racing position.

Yesterday, Chris Hoy added his voice to those of Boardman, now head of research and development at British Cycling, and Dimitris Katsanis, who develops the team's cutting edge equipment, both of whom have said they would like Obree to put his innovative mind to the quest for the new ideas and tricks required to keep them at the top.

"Graeme was such an inspiration to me," said Hoy. "He won his first world title in 1993, when I was just starting on the track, and he did it off his own back, with no funding or support. He was awesome physically and as an inventor. He's a unique character and if someone like that is on board, that's when crazy ideas come to fruition.

"Graeme's the type of guy who can reinvent the wheel. He has an ability to step back and look at things from a different angle. He has crazy, wild ideas – he's like a mad genius and I was more fascinated by people like that as a kid than someone who thought and acted logically. He's a legend in every sense of the word." Contacted yesterday, Obree said there has been no approach – yet. "When I first heard about this I phoned British Cycling to speak to Chris Boardman," said Obree. "I never heard back, but they've had a lot of other things to think about in the last few months."

"But if they call then of course I'd talk to them," he continued. He admits that he has been impressed by the British team's domination of the track cycling at these Olympics, and acknowledges there are echoes in their innovative approach of his own, which saw him virtually reinvent the bike on two occasions. "I'm impressed, definitely," he says. "They've melted everything down, thrown out the dead wood, the tradition, the dogma, and started from complete scratch. The scale of their achievement is absolutely huge.

"And for Chris, it's incredible. The place is going to go wild when he gets back – there'll be ticker tape from the buildings. But he deserves it – he's got his success because he's worked for it. He's worked harder than anyone else, for the past 20 years, and he was as dominant in his events as Usain Bolt on the running track. But the most impressive thing about Chris is that his feet are well and truly on the ground. He's a brilliant ambassador, always polite, a genuine nice guy."

There was, for the first time at these Games, some disappointing news for Hoy yesterday. He failed to win enough votes to be elected to the IOC athletes' commission, though he had been under no illusions, given that his winning of three gold medals got in the way of lobbying. He had been one of 29 candidates for the four places, which confer full IOC membership. But in the event the taekwondo player Moon Dae-Sung and German fencer Claudia Bokel – who earned a warning for her tactics – were voted on, as well as Russian swimmer Alexander Popov and Cuban volleyball player Ruiz-Luaces Yumilka.