An internet poll for sports mag L’Equipe asked: “Do you think the performance of British cyclists at the London Games has been tainted by cheating?”
Seventy per cent of voters said “yes”, following the French team’s suggestion that the Brits have been using ‘special wheels’ to gain an advantage at the Olympics.
Just 24 per cent said “no” and the rest were undecided.
The arguably desperate grasp at finding an excuse for French inferiority against Team GB came from France team director Isabelle Gautheron, who said: “We are asking a lot of questions: how have they gained so many tenths of seconds?”
“We are looking a lot at the kit they use. They hide their wheels a lot. The ones for the bikes they race on are put in wheel covers at the finish.”
Hoy, who collected the sixth Olympic gold of his career in the men’s keirin on Tuesday night, said other teams should look at what they’re doing wrong after being “destroyed” by Team GB.
“It is difficult for any team when you work for four years and then you get destroyed by another country. I know it is demoralising because it has happened to us in other years,” he said.
“But there is nothing we do in Britain that is massively different to anyone else. If someone else wants to do what we are doing, feel free.
“It is just that everyone in our team tries to be the best in the world.”
Britain has won seven of 10 track cycling events at the London 2012 Olympics.
Image: Getty
