Category: Cycling

The courage with which he faces his diagnosis is typical of a man who engages with life in his own way, with perspective

At a certain age, joked Sir Chris Hoy in October 2011, you don’t even buy green bananas. The throwaway remark was intended to underline the complexities and unpredictabilities of being a “senior” athlete – Hoy was then 35, seemingly blessed with eternal youth – but it seems grimly apposite in the light of the Scot’s announcement that he has terminal cancer and may have only between two and four years to live.

There has been universal warmth and admiration for the way Hoy has dealt with his diagnosis, revealed publicly in an interview with the Sunday Times. An upcoming memoir, All That Matters, will go into further detail, along with relating the multiple sclerosis diagnosis of Hoy’s wife, Sarra. The unflinching courage shown by Hoy, the acknowledgment of the tremendous difficulty of processing and communicating what has happened to their family, underlines that here is a remarkable human being, who engages with life – and death – in his own way, with a humbling degree of perspective.

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After Hoy’s announcement that he has terminal cancer, we look back at some of the career highlights that made him a household name

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• Rider helps Great Britain defend team pursuit title
• Archibald missed Paris Olympics with serious leg injuries

Katie Archibald struck gold on her return from serious leg injuries as Great Britain successfully defended the women’s team pursuit title at the Cycling World Championships in Denmark.

Archibald’s hopes of more Olympic success in Paris were dashed when she suffered a fractured tibia and fibula, dislocated ankle and ligament damage in a freak accident when stumbling over a step in her garden in June.

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Katie Archibald, who returns to racing for GB at the worlds in Denmark, is eyeing the LA Olympics despite being upended by the death of her partner and a horrific injury

Katie Archibald reflects on the differences between sport, life and death with such moving insight that I have to look away. So much raw ­feeling is etched into her face, as her eyes fill with tears, that it seems intrusive to just sit and see such pain. I touch her arm lightly in attempted reassurance and then try to turn ­discreetly to the gleaming pine track where the GB men’s team pursuit squad race past at blurring speed.

The soft hiss of their bikes makes an eerie sound at the Manchester Velodrome as they prepare for the track world championships, which begin in Ballerup, Denmark on Wednesday. Archibald, a five-time world champion who won gold at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, will compete in the women’s team pursuit and Madison. Even being on the track will be an incredible achievement.

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