Hero of the day

Ok so really, hero of life my life.

Riding here in Edinburgh has given me a really great appreciation of an awful lot of things. Not the least of which is a deep appreciation for bike lanes, roundabouts, and cobbles. But much of my time here has been spent chatting with local cyclists about their national cycling hero. As Americans we are all familiar with the scuttlebutt about the news from the Tour of California, who Lance is dating, or what Chris Horner had for lunch. Here the chatting is all about Chris Hoy. Some of you may know Chris, some of you my be new to the cult of chris.

Chris Hoy is the first Brit in a century to win three gold Medals in one Olympics. For that reason alone he has risen to a pretty prominent position in the eyes of most scots and brits alike. Chris cut his teeth (or quads as it were) on the streets of Edinburgh and at the Edinburgh Velodrome. Sometimes I ride along or cruise up a really quad-killing ascent and say: "yeah, I bet Chris Hoy did that one a few times."

So anyways, enough about the man. Lets talk about the legs:


Yeah, those are Chris Hoy's legs. 27in in circumference each. Thats like a large Christmas ham for an entire extended family. Think about it this way; thats over two and a quarter feet in diameter. HOLY CRAP!!!

Moving on. Chris can squat lift over 500 lbs. Yeah, over twice his bodyweight. Not bad for a human being.

This is the the one that rocks my socks. From a standing start Ol' Chris can generate over two thousand three hundred watts of power as he starts his pedal stroke. Yeah, I dont know what that is in horsepower or any of the other technical crap, but if I plugged my house into Chris, he could run it for several hours with just his start from standstill power.

My next favorite, when asked about the torque he can generate Chris politely responded: "Yes, it’s true," he laughs. "I can generate more torque than an F1 car. But I can only hold it for a nanosecond. They can do it for about two hours."

Yeah, whatever Chris. We know you could break apart one of those dinky carbon fibre and balsa wood F1 cars. (oh yeah, note the proper spelling of fibre there)

Lets talk about an afternoon on the training track and a cool down from all that hard work. A typical session might include four 500-metre sprints at 100% effort. That doesn’t mean going till he feels a bit red-faced and puffed. It means going so hard that lactic acid streams through his legs, requiring a half-hour recovery.


Because of all of this Chris Hoy is pretty much my hero. If only my legs can be as ripped as chris's one day. Not gonna lie, a little bit of bromance going on between me and Chris (just ask kristin).

Heres a few more lovely photos and the lot:




Check out Hoy rip up Theo Bos in the 2008 World Championships.