Chris Hoy's My London

Home is…

Edinburgh, even though I’ve been living in Manchester for 15 years. I’ll be back in Edinburgh for the festival this summer because I like stand-up.

First thing you do when you come to London?

I’m a big coffee fan and I’ve become quite particular about the coffee I drink since doing a barista course. I’ll go straight to Monmouth Coffee for a ristretto. For cyclists, cafés are like pubs; they’ve become a bit of a social hub.

Where do you stay in London?

Covent Garden Hotel, which is very quiet and feels like a one-off because all the rooms are different, or The May Fair Hotel where the service is good.

Which animal would you most like to be?

A racehorse because they’re well looked after and exercised, and when you see them up close they’re phenomenally powerful.

Last play you saw?

I haven’t had the chance to see much on stage in London, but now that I’ve retired, my wife Sarra will be dragging me along to see musicals and I’ll be taking her to stand-up gigs.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?

Change Boris bikes to Hoy bikes.

Favourite shops?

The cyclists’ mantra is: ‘Don’t stand when you can sit and don’t sit when you can lie down.’ So when I was competing, shopping was never high up on the agenda. I like Paul Smith in Covent Garden for clothes, though; he’s a cycling nut himself and makes suits for me because I struggle to get normal trousers to fit. I like the independent shoe shops around Seven Dials for trainers, but these days I tend to follow Sarra around the shops.

Best place for a first date?

The Velodrome when it reopens. You get to see a potential boyfriend or girlfriend in cycling shorts and you can see if they’ve got what it takes — athletics-wise, of course.

Best meal?

The day before flying to Malaysia for our honeymoon we came to London to spend the night and had an incredible taster menu at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen.

Most romantic thing someone’s done for you?

The way my wife happily put my career first and did everything she could to help me in the run-up to the Beijing and London Olympics was romantic.

Best thing a cabbie has said to you?

I was on my way to Sky Ride once and there were road closures because of the event. The taxi driver said: ‘Those bloody cyclists, they want to shut this city down. I blame that Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins.’