SIR BRADLEY WIGGINS gave a heartfelt tribute to “one of our greatest” Sir Chris Hoy following the Scot’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
Six-time Olympic champion track cyclist Hoy, 48, revealed back in October he had been told by doctors he has between two and four years to live.
Wiggins, 44, Britain’s first Tour de France winner and five-time Olympic champion, was a part of Team GB‘s formidable track cycling programme alongside Hoy for four Games between 2000 and 2012.
The pair of legendary cyclists have known each other for more than two decades.
And Wiggins began getting emotional as he discussed Hoy’s tragic health issues.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, he said: “That hit everyone quite hard that, and those of us that know Chris know what an absolute gentleman he is, what a heart of gold.
“The worst things happen to the best people – and he truly is a great, great person.
“I spent all my Olympic career with Chris. When we were young, I remember sitting in dope control in Athens, where we both won gold – he won the first night, I won the second night – and he was sat there in dope control having just won the kilometre and he was going ‘Do you want to touch my medal?’
“And I said ‘No, Chris, I’m going to try and win mine tomorrow night’. I thought it would give me bad luck.
“He was the first person who congratulated me when I won mine in Athens – came across the pen – and when I won my fifth in Rio he was there with Steve Redgrave at a BBC interview.”
He went on to add: “It’s tragic, it really is. He’s one of our greatest in many ways, not just on the bike.
“Because what I think he’s doing, and the way he’s handled it, is going to help a lot of people. And his lasting legacy is going to be infinite.”
Hoy first made public in February that he was undergoing treatment including chemotherapy.
He had been diagnosed with primary cancer in his prostate.
Yet despite confirming in October that his diagnosis was now terminal, Hoy has since insisted he still has “hope”.
Hoy, who has a wife of 14 years, Sarra, and two children, Callum, 10, and Chloe, 7, told The Chris Evans Breakfast Show: “Well the plan is, right now, keep doing what I’m doing in terms of treatment because it’s working.
“Touch wood – the diagnosis was two to four years, but actually if you look beyond that it can be many years.
“There’s people out there that are still around who’ve been in the similar situation for 20 years. So you know there’s hope.
“There is hope and I’m very lucky that there is treatment for me. But also you don’t know it could be less than that. So that is the target you know – crack on for many years, ideally.”
