Hoy wants guaranteed gold

Sir Chris Hoy admitted that while he still plans to defend three Olympic titles in London, he might sacrifice one or two to guarantee a gold medal.

The Scot, who is one gold short of Sir Steve Redgrave's British career record of five, won three of his four across five gruelling days in Beijing.

He admits he took a risk at the Laoshan Velodrome last year - in trying to win three events he could have ended up with nothing.

And the 33-year-old is unlikely to get any second chances after London.

"It's a risk and something you have to be aware of but I wouldn't be entering a race unless I had the belief I was going to win it," he said.

"It's still quite a long time to the Olympics and anything can happen.

"At the moment, I plan to go for all three and it'd be lovely to defend all three titles but I wouldn't risk losing a gold medal for the sake of having three bronzes or three silvers.

"It's about winning gold medals and I'd rather have one gold medal than three silvers."

Changes to the track programme for London, mean Hoy's Great Britain team-mate Victoria Pendleton has a chance to emulate his Beijing achievements.

In China, Pendleton only had one event in which to compete - the sprint - and she won that.

But, following moves to equally split the 10 track cycling events between men and women, she will be a contender in two more, the team sprint and the keirin.

Speaking at a launch of his sponsorship deal with the sports nutrition company Science in Sport, Hoy added: "It's great news for Vicky.

"It's going to give her the chance to go for three events.

"It's something she's been outspoken about and quite rightly so, to try and get the parity between men and women."

Hoy had to succeed in 18 separate races to win his gold hat-trick but he warned that the biggest challenge facing Pendleton is staying focused.

"We're quite different athletes in terms of our mental approach to racing," Hoy said.

"The biggest challenge about having multiple events isn't necessarily the physical endurance you need racing day after day.

"It's actually the mental aspects of competition - taking each race as it comes."

The downside of the changes are the elimination of several events, notably the individual pursuits which generated four medals for British riders - Rebecca Romero and Wendy Houvenaghel taking a one-two in the women's and Bradley Wiggins and Steven Burke earning gold and bronze in the men's.

The pursuits - the equivalent of the 1500 metres in athletics - had previously been seen as staples of tracking cycling.

And that was also the case with the kilometre, removed for 2008, in which Hoy earned his first Olympic gold in Athens.

The Scot bounced back spectacularly but he sympathised with his team-mates who must start from scratch as they approach the halfway point between Olympics.

"There's plusses and negatives - I can really empathise with people like Rebecca Romero, people like Bradley Wiggins, Steven Burke, Wendy Houvenaghel, Olympic medallists in events which are not going to be there in two and a half years' time.

"When my event, the kilo, was dropped from the programme in Beijing it was devastating.

"More than anything, it's the timing of it, you don't get a full Olympic cycle to change your plans and prepare.

"It's halfway through, you've already spent a lot of wasted time preparing for something that's not going to happen.

"It's frustrating for a lot of riders but I think it's been done for a positive reason and that's to get parity between men and women."