The six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy, who spearheaded a golden era of British track cycling dominance, has announced his retirement, content that he has nothing left to prove after a long and stellar career.
Britain's most successful Olympian, who won two golds at the 2012 London Games to add to three from Beijing four years earlier, and his first in Athens in 2004, says the time is right to quit having exhausted every last ounce of effort and energy.
The 37-year-old had been deliberating for months over competing in next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in his native Scotland, and in the velodrome named after him, but he decided it would be one championship too far.
Sir Chris says one of his proudest achievements is the part he played in the transformation of cycling in Britain.
The IOC president Jacques Rogge said Hoy's tears of joy after clinching his sixth Games gold was the defining moment of London 2012.
