A huge opportunity for Scotland

By Matt McGeehan

Four hundred miles. The round trip faced by Sir Chris Hoy to take part in any quality training session early in his career.

That, of course, was in Manchester, at the National Cycling Centre and home of British Cycling. And it was more than a decade ago, before Hoy moved south to pursue his dream. A dream which culminated in his fifth and sixth Olympic golds at the London 2012 Games and which could yet finish with a flourish in Glasgow at an arena which bears his name.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games opens less than 600 days after the staging of the Track World Cup, the first major competition to be held in Glasgow's East End.

For any Scot eager to follow in Hoy's revolutions - either with competitive aspirations or for pleasure - the Siberian pine boards of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome await. Just 40-odd miles from Hoy's golden post boxes in central Edinburgh. A short warm-up ride from Glasgow city centre. Accessible to all of Scotland.

History had already been made at the Manchester Velodrome before Hoy started making the journey there. He, and others, merely added to it.

The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome is a blank canvas. An opportunity. An inspiration. There are endless possibilities.

The beauty of a velodrome is that it can be used around the clock, by the elite and the not-so-elite. By Olympians and Paralympians, those aspiring to compete in Glasgow, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and beyond, and those seeking to give it a go for the first time, to ride for fun, or to keep fit.

Hoy, a winner of 11 world titles, is the talisman, the top of a pyramid which is set to get wider and wider now Scotland has its own facility to be proud of.

Matt McGeehan is a sports reporter for the Press Association and has covered four Track Cycling World Championships, three Tours de France and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is author of Bradley Wiggins: the story of Britain's greatest-ever cyclist.