Sir Chris Hoy, the triple Olympic gold medal-winner, used the launch of his autobiography in Manchester yesterday to draw a line under the fame and fortune that followed his success in Beijing at last year’s Games and turn his focus towards London 2012.

The 33-year-old will return to competitive cycling at the World Cup meeting in Manchester that starts on October 30, his first racing since a crash during a World Cup meeting in Copenhagen in February left him with a hip injury and ended his season.

Hoy has not turned a pedal in anger before a British crowd since winning gold in the team and individual sprints and keirin in Beijing, a haul that turned a largely anonymous athlete into a household name in this country.

Hoy, employing the same intelligence and work ethic that also helped him to win Olympic gold in the kilometre time-trial in 2004, threw himself into the post-Beijing celebrity circuit but is now just as single-minded in what he sees as a countdown, which starts this month and culminates in the next Olympics.

“After the Olympics, it was a lot harder than you might expect — there were a lot of enjoyable things, a lot of fun things,” said Hoy, who was named the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for his efforts. “It’s difficult when you have this small window to capitalise on the success you’ve had but you still feel you’re just a cyclist and want to go out and do what you do best.

“It’s frustrating when you’re not able to go out and train and you can see your rivals doing that. They are away training, not making adverts or cutting ribbons at supermarkets. They are away training 100 per cent to try to beat you.

“But you have to remind yourself this is a long-term plan and this is the first step on the road to London. I enjoy being back on a bike and I appreciate what I’ve got. As things start to cut back in terms of media requests, charity requests, sponsorship requests, I can start to focus more on cycling.”

Hoy’s wish to benefit financially from his Olympic performances was aided by his crash in Copenhagen and the enforced break from an Olympian’s relentless schedule of training and competition. Now, however, the Scotsman is refreshed and relishing the opportunity to perform at an even higher level.

“It was a big crash and the older you get, the more you question how you will recover from it,” Hoy said. “But this has shown me I still have the same desire, the same motivation. I’m enjoying my cycling again and when I’m enjoying it, I perform well.

“I don’t feel I have peaked. If I thought that, I wouldn’t keep going. Technically, tactically, there is no question I have room for improvement and we’re always looking for ways to tweak the training programmes.”