Chris Hoy is hoping he can learn from the mistakes of Jason Queally as he begins his new life as an Olympic champion.

Scotsman Hoy was the first Briton to be awarded a gold medal in Athens when he claimed the kilometre time-trial title - brilliantly becoming the fourth rider to break the Olympic record that evening.

It was a display of nerve and guts which few who were there will forget.

Hoy has stayed on in the Olympic Village and, although he was in the team sprint squad which was knocked out in the first round, he has had little to do apart from contemplate his future.

"It's bizarre, because every waking minute of the last four years has been geared towards what I achieved last week," he said.

"It's hard to accept you've done that, but then you just want to enjoy it. It doesn't last long, so you want to make the most of the moment."

Hoy does not have far to look if he wants a lesson in the inertia which can set in once an ambition as momentous as an Olympic gold is reached.

Queally - who also set an Olympic record in winning his title four years ago - found himself drifting from project to project as he hunted for a new motivation in a post-Sydney comedown.

He tried racing in the keirin series in Japan and made an attempt on the land speed record.

Apart from in financial terms, neither could be considered a success.

And, as a result, Queally's form had dipped to the extent that he could not defend his title in the Greek capital with Hoy and Craig Maclean selected ahead of him.

Queally admits now that he felt empty after his win four years ago.

But Queally's frustration could mean that Hoy does not go through the same experience.

Hoy enlisted Queally's help in the run-up to the Games and the 28-year-old is confident he can avoid the pitfalls a gold medal brings.

"There's so many things that, because Jason's been there and done almost the same pattern, that I can learn from the things that he's experienced," said Hoy.

"Hopefully I can miss out the stuff he did wrong and do the stuff he did right."

Ironically, Queally is now said to be in the form of his life and could go up against Hoy at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

However, no matter how well the Englishman is riding at the moment, it is unlikely he would have been able to beat Hoy, who more than justified his place in the team.

As world champion, Hoy had to ride last and that meant watching the Olympic record broken three times in quick succession.

Such was the standard of a competition which Queally described as "the best kilo series ever" that the Australian cyclist, Shane Kelly, who was the first to set a new record, did not even finish among the medals.

Hoy - whose next international meeting is likely to be January's World Cup event in Manchester - summoned astonishing focus to stay calm as the record was knocked over time after time.

But the Edinburgh rider has a knack of making Olympic title-winning performances seem like a mere question of taking a methodical approach.

"I just had to keep reminding myself it was about my ride on paper," he said.

"If I'd seen the times before and thought they were the times I was going to have to beat then it would have been a bit daunting.

"But you don't think about the ride as a whole, you just break it into segments.

"The first part, you get on the bike and you're just thinking about getting strapped in.

"As soon as you've done that, you're thinking about the countdown, then you're thinking about the first quarter and so on.

"If you started thinking about the race as a whole, it would be too much to deal with in one go."

Powering along in a broiling and packed velodrome, Hoy did allow one thing to pierce his armour-plated concentration - the support of the British fans who had ringed the track in Union flags.

He said: "Normally, I never really hear the noise when I'm racing because I'm in my own little world and, with the helmet on, I can't really hear a lot.

"But the noise! I just heard this roar after each lap as the split went up on the scoreboard and I knew that meant I was up.

"I could hear them and I just thought: 'I'm up, I'm up, I'm up'."