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Hoy calls for grass roots to benefit from Beijing gold rush

British Cycling bids for funds to massively boost cycling numbers by 2012

Triple Olympic gold medallist, Chris Hoy today called for more government cash to be spent on increasing the numbers of people cycling.

Speaking to Richard Moore in the Guardian, Hoy, who was on Sunday voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year by over 280,000 people said"I'd like to see an increase in participation," he said. "If kids at school say they're a track cyclist, it would be nice if others knew what they were talking about and felt they could try it, too. But I'd like all areas of the sport - mountain biking, road, BMX - to benefit at the grass roots.

"I'd like to see the government making cycling more accessible and for cyclists to be more appreciated by other road users. In Holland they have good cycle paths and cyclists have right of way. That kind of change isn't going to happen overnight but I'd love to see it happen in the long term."

Hoy's comments echo those made by Dave Brailsford after he was named Coach of the Year at the BBC awards and they come hot on the heels of British Cycling's bid for a massive increase in funding from Sport England to boost participation in cycling amongst all members of society.

On Monday, speaking in the wake of Hoy's Sports Personality Award, Ian Drake, British Cycling's Chief Executive Designate, said: "Sport England want to get half-a-million more people into sport by 2012. We think we can deliver 20% of that - we are talking about 100,000 more people cycling by 2012.

"We think that we could make the single biggest contribution to the legacy of London 2012 in terms of mobilising the nation.

"The sport has undergone a tremendous transformation in the last eight years. We have grown by 10,000 members in three years."

Both Brailsford, Hoy, seem to go beyond that calling for further efforts to boost cycling, not just as a sport, amongst school children and as a form of transport.

The difference is more one of nuance than actual direction and all are agreed that the opportunity for cycling and the public goodwill towards it as an activity and a sport has probably not been better since the 1950s. There is a long way to go, but there is plenty to aim at, last week British Cycling announced its membership had reached 25,000 for the first time, but as Richard Moore points out that's less than a tenth of the number that voted for Chris Hoy on Sunday.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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