Video: Surely Sir Chris Hoy is the master of turning left? On a bike maybe — in a car, not so much

Six-time Olympic champion comes a cropper in his Nissan at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Thu, Jul 03, 2014 14:47

If anyone should be good at taking a left-hand bend on a track during a race at speed, you’d think it would be Sir Chris Hoy. After all, riding anti-clockwise on the boards of a velodrome brought him six Olympic gold medals and 11 world championship rainbow jerseys.

It turns out to be a bit trickier in a racing car than a bike, however. The Scot, who signed earlier this year for Nissan to drive in the British GT championship, piled straight on into the hay bales while competing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend.

"You've got to get on to the brakes early," says the commentator, and there perhaps is the problem: track bikes don't have brakes so Hoy's not used to slowing down. Luckily, he came away from the crash with nothing hurt worse than his pride, tweeting afterwards:

Well that was embarrassing!

— Chris Hoy (@chrishoy) June 28, 2014

I suppose it had to come at some point; just had my first proper shunt in motorsport at #FoS. I'm fine but the car looks a bit sore!

— Chris Hoy (@chrishoy) June 28, 2014

Sir Chris Hoy

Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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1 comments

therevokid | 9 years ago

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oh dear, oh dear, oh dear .... and in a Skyline too ...

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