ED CLANCY is hoping there’s a ‘Chris Hoy opportunity’ at the London Olympics.

Fresh from an unexpected and sensational solo gold medal in the Track Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen, the Huddersfield racer – best known as a Beijing Olympic champion in the team pursuit – now has options to consider ahead of 2012.

The former Holme Valley Wheeler was disappointed with silver for Great Britain in team pursuit in Denmark, but he finished in a blaze of glory at the Ballerup Super Arena by landing gold in the one-day five-event omnium.

Now, while the team pursuit remains his passion, he’s hoping the Olympic schedule and Great Britain tactics will allow him to do both events when the greatest show on earth is on home soil in two years time, when Clancy will be 27.

“The London Olympics will be a once in a lifetime thing, so why wouldn’t I consider doing two events? I mean, how good would it be to win two gold medals in a home Games?” enthused Clancy.

“It might be a case of ‘one rider, one medal’ when it comes to the Olympics next time – there might not be a Chris Hoy opportunity – so until they release the schedule it’s hard to say what might be achievable.

“The team pursuit is a definite because that’s massive for me, but hopefully I can do both events.”

Chris Hoy, of course, landed three gold medals and a knighthood in China when Britain excelled, and Clancy believes the team are even better advanced now in terms of preparation for 2012.

“When you think back to the World Championships in Bordeaux in 2006, two years before Beijing, we were nowhere near as good as we are now, so we are in really good shape,” he explained.

“We’ve got to keep things moving forward because the Australians are putting up a good fight, but our whole programme is about the Olympic events, that’s the biggest thing of all, and I believe we are already in a really good place and there’s more to come.”

Clancy, a former Shelley High School and Huddersfield Technical College student who lived in Upperthong during his teens, awoke an hour earlier than intended for the omnium in Denmark after his alarm clock automatically adjusted when he had already taken into account daylight saving time!

But he responded with victories in the first event, the flying 200m time-trial which he’d never done before, and the one-kilometre time-trial, which is the final event.

He also claimed top-five finishes in the individual pursuit and the points race to win ahead of defending champion Leigh Howard and Taylor Phinney, the two-time world individual pursuit champion. His biggest disappointment was 13th in the scratch element, and admits he’s got work to do on that front.

“I need to do more on the bunch races, because it’s a long, long way out of my comfort zone,” said Clancy, who lives in Newton-le-Willows but is considering a move to Sheffield.

“To be fair, in the mass-start bunch races, the points and the scratch, I had no idea what I was doing – I was in at the deep end – and after feeling a massive high, the scratch became a disaster and I was on a massive low.

“It can be a bit of a lottery and you need a bit of luck and, to be fair, I was pretty freaked out by it all, but thankfully there was about an hour to the kilometre and I had time to come round from that.

“I knew by the time that came around that I was in a good position to win, and it felt great to go out in style.

“It was a good feeling, especially after the heartbreak of losing to the Australians by just 0.152secs in the team pursuit, and even if they add another endurance element to the event in London, having won by eight points at the weekend I think I could be in there with a shout.”

Clancy asked sprint coach Iain Dyer and Olympic team sprint champion Jamie Staff for advice moments before the start of the flying 200 and then specialist Chris Newton for guidance on the bunch races, in which he used a bike he had ridden previously for only eight laps in Manchester.