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Staying on track

With the golden memories of London finally starting to fade, Jason Kenny talks to Sky Sports about the long road to Rio

Jason Kenny's Olympic record would suggest that he is the best track sprinter in the world by some margin, a rider who can pick and choose gold medals at major championships.

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Kenny was finally able to stand on the top step of a world championship podium in Minsk this year, fighting fading form to come through the repechage and pip Germany's Maximilian Levy to the line in the keirin. "I was a good chunk off from where I was in London. That lack of general conditioning started to catch up with me just at the crucial moment," he added. "Really we could have done with the world championships being a couple of weeks earlier but it was the same for a lot of people. We saw a lot of new names stepping up and winning world titles and it was a good opportunity for those guys." Following the once-in-a-lifetime experience of a successful home Olympics, some may question Kenny's motivation to show the same dedication to the sport in the run-up to Rio. Those doubts were exacerbated when he revealed he would spend this summer participating in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge - a motor sport series - but the Bolton-born rider insists the daily grind of track cycling still appeals to him. "You find the faster you get, the harder it is to get faster and I quite like the challenge," he said. "It does get more difficult to try and find that little bit, it gets more and more into looking at little bits here and little bits there and piecing them all together. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle and I really enjoy that kind of thing. "That's why I like the car racing, you can see how to (make) gains - if you do something slightly differently then you can go quicker. That's the side of things I really enjoy." He added of his auto adventure: "I'm hoping it's not going to be too much of a hindrance to training really. In the past I've only ever done cycling and I've always been very focused on that so it is just a bit of a change. "At the end of the day, it's only for this summer - that's all I've committed to. I'll just have to take it as it comes and see what happens really." Whether on two wheels or four, Kenny's need for speed shows no sign of abating. Jason Kenny was speaking at the launch of the first ever inline range of adidas cycling apparel. For more information go to www.wiggle.com, or join the conversation @adidasuk.

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