Sir Chris Hoy takes the first step of the process towards qualification for London 2012 in Poland this weekend.
Athens hero starts build up to 2012 Games
Sir Chris Hoy is focused on qualification for the London Olympics in 2012, a process which begins with this weekend's European Championships in Pruszkow, Poland.
The industrial suburb of Warsaw hosted the 2009 World Championships, an event Hoy missed due to a hip problem, the most serious injury of his career.
While Hoy's participation in September's British Championships ended prematurely due to illness and he had a slight tumble on his return to the saddle, the triple Gold medallist in Beijing in 2008 is happy with his early season form.
He said: "I'm not looking to peak yet so the form that's coming now is quite encouraging, even though I've not done any of the finishing touches. But I'm not going in with huge expectations.
"As a stand alone event it's not all that important. What is important is it's the first step of the process of qualification for London."
Focus on team sprint
Hoy will ride in the sprint and team sprint in the three-day event which begins on Friday and is placing greater emphasis on the three-man, three-lap discipline, where France and Germany are major rivals.
Hoy missed last month's Commonwealth Games in Delhi to prioritise the Olympic qualification points available in Poland and has a long season ahead which will see him race in Melbourne, Colombia, Manchester and in March's World Championships in Apeldoorn, Holland.
The idea is to accumulate as many points as possible in order to ease the workload in the build up to 2012.
"Hopefully we'll be ahead of the game and be in a comfortable situation," Hoy said.
London calling
And Hoy is determined to absorb and utilise as much information as he can in a bid to add to his Olympic gold medal tally in London.
He has already spoken to American Michael Johnson, who won 200m and 400m gold in Atlanta in 1996, five-time Olympic rowing champion Sir Steve Redgrave and Seb Coe, the London 2012 organising committee chairman who won Olympic gold in 1980 and 1984.
Johnson isolated himself from the Games and did not stay in the athletes' village.
"His strategy was for keeping his routine as similar to normal and keeping everything familiar," said Hoy, who is keeping all options open.
For now, the Edinburgh rider is relaxed and will prepare mentally as well as physically to be on top form come London.
"Right now I wouldn't say there's any pressure. If anything there's excitement and anticipation," Hoy added. "You have to be very clear about how you're going to deal with it.
"We'll hopefully be prepared for the mayhem that is an Olympic Games in your home nation."
