Hoy escapes keirin crash without serious injury

SIR Chris Hoy flew home to Manchester from Copenhagen yesterday morning after X-rays revealed he suffered no broken bones in his high speed crash on Saturday evening. The Scot was contesting the final of the keirin in the World Cup meeting, having won his two qualifying heats, when he tangled with the Frenchman Kevin Sireau and hit the deck at around 40mph.

Though he remained grounded and motionless for several minutes after the fall, he said yesterday that he hadn't suffered concussion. Instead his hip and knee took the brunt of the impact, and he will assess both injuries this week before deciding whether to race in the Revolution meeting in Manchester on Saturday.

A decision on whether he travels to Poland for the world championships in five weeks will be taken later, though last night he remained optimistic. "If there's any way I can be there, I will be," said Hoy. He added that it was his worst crash in four years, since a fall in training in Japan. On that occasion, though, he was wearing the body armour and full-face helmet that is compulsory in Japan. In Copenhagen he had only the thin lycra of his Sky+HD team outfit which was in tatters as he left the track to a sympathetic applause from the Danish crowd.

"It's my hip I'm most worried about," said Hoy. "The cuts and grazes are superficial. I was lucky the track was in such good condition – I suffered burns, but they're very clean, and didn't pick up any splinters.

"I'm going to play it by ear in terms of Revolution this weekend and the worlds. I feel a lot better today than I did last night, when I was walking on crutches. It's frustrating and disappointing, but the world's are a long way off and I'm still optimistic."

With the considerable benefit of hindsight, Hoy is also frustrated that he adopted a different tactic in the final of the keirin. Prior to his crash he won 27 in a row, most of them from the front, but in the final he opted to try something new – going from further back. That, inevitably, meant getting involved in the argy-bargy that goes on among the six riders, which ultimately led to the fateful collision with Sireau.

"I played it safe in the first two rounds and felt good, winning comfortably," said Hoy. "In the final I thought I'd ride it differently. When Gregory Bauge came past me it was okay, but when Sireau came our arms locked and I had nowhere to go.

"You've got to try different things," he added. "On this occasion it didn't work out. I'm going to face an uphill struggle to be fit for the worlds, but if something like this is going to happen any time, it's best happening now, three years from the Olympics, which are everything."

With team talisman Hoy returning home, British expectations were lowered and one gold medal was claimed on the final day of the event to take the total tally to five. Britain's solitary success came when three rising stars – Lizzie Armitstead, Katie Colclough and Joanna Rowsell, topped the podium in the women's team pursuit.