CHRIS HOY’S wife has revealed that she often got so nervous when he was cycling that she couldn’t watch him.
Sarra Hoy, 34, says that she saw flashes of light and had to stick her head between her legs when he husband was racing.
She made the comments on Twitter last night (SUN) after a documentary about Sir Chris’s participation in the Le Mans 24 hour car race was shown for the first time.
Sir Chris finished 18th out of 60 cars in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race, often dubbed motorsport’s most gruelling test, in June, but his wife has said she got more nervous watching him on two wheels in the velodrome.
‘Sir Chris Hoy: 200mph at Le Mans’ was aired on BBC Two yesterday evening, and Sarra Hoy received several tweets from viewers asking how she could bear to watch the show.
Twitter user Sarah Seaton tweeted Sarra Hoy asking: “How could you stomach this? I can only watch ’cause I know we’d have heard if he had got hurt!
Hoy replied: “I was even more nervous watching him race bikes! Used to get stars in my eyes and have to put my head between my legs.”
Sarra also retweeted several users who commented on how nerve-racking the documentary was to watch.
Annie W tweeted: “This Chris Hoy documentary is really stressing me out.”
Former X-Factor presenter Ben Shephard quipped: “Loving Chris Hoy Le Mans 24 hour documentary. It’s gripping – unlike the car at times! The supermarket run must be interesting Sarra Hoy.”
Sarra Hoy replied: “Haha! Fast food…”
Chris Hoy, 40, turned to car racing after his retirement from cycling in 2013.
He has since competed in the British GT Championships, and the European Le Mans series, as well as the Le Mans 24 hour race.
Whilst he regularly reached speeds of over 60km/h whilst on the cycling track, racers at Le Mans spend the majority of the race travelling at over 300km/h.
In the 24 hour race, he completed a distance of 4647km for his Algarve Pro Racing team, alongside team-mates Michael Munemann and Andrea Pizzitola.
The event has been held annually since 1923, and represents one leg of the Triple Crown of motorsport; other events being the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix.
