Heroes, Villains & Velodromes – a story of British success

With track cycling becoming the most recent addition to the very small list of sports at which Britain excels, some might be wondering how it all happened.

Heroes, Villains & Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain‘s Track Cycling Revolution, by Richard Moore, chronicles that very transformation as Britain has gone from making up the numbers to become the sport’s dominant nation.

Olympic and nine-time world champion Chris Hoy has been a leading figure in this revolution, and he is the principal character in a book that includes in-depth interviews with all the key people, from Peter Keen to David Brailsford, Chris Boardman and many others.

Graeme Obree, reviewing the book in The Scotsman newspaper, wrote: “This is very much a multi-faceted book where Chris Hoy, along with Craig MacLean and others, form a thread that tells an amazing story of transformation, possibly never seen on such a scale in any other sport ever.

“This is an absolutely must-read book that tells a story that had to be told; it is the story of a new era in British cycling that fills me with excitement with the approach of the Beijing Olympics.”

Heroes, Villains & Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolution, by Richard Moore,(HarperSport), £15.99. Richard Moore’s previous book, In Search of Robert Millar, was named Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards.