The Lure of Le Mans, and Living with Incurable Cancer – Don’t Miss @Ford’s Exclusive Interview with Sir Chris Hoy

DUNTON, UK – Six-time Olympic cycling gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy will drive a Mustang Dark Horse R in a special celebrity race at Le Mans on Friday. @Ford caught up with him at a pre-race test at Silverstone to get his thoughts on the car, the race itself, his terminal cancer diagnosis and a special charity bike ride he’s organised to raise funds for cancer charities.

Sir Chris, it’s your first test in the Mustang Dark Horse R. How does the car feel, and how excited are you?

Well, first of all, it looks amazing. It's the first time I've seen it with the livery on it. The gold Tour de 4 logo really pops out, it's really eye catching, and it's great to see it spreading the message around prostate cancer. The car drives beautifully straight out of the box. It feels like it's ready to go and it is quite easy to drive. It inspires confidence. Everybody loves the sound of a Mustang and it's such an iconic car. I think everybody smiles when they see you in it and, as you can tell, I’m having a great time enjoying myself.

You’ve raced at Le Mans before, so what are you expecting this time?

It's in at the deep end having not driven the car a great deal, but I do feel I’m beginning to get to grips with it quite quickly. Le Mans is not a thing you do once. When you race there, it just amplifies that desire to do more and more and more. It's a special place, historic, and there's something different about Le Mans and the circuit. I'm delighted to be going back and can't wait to line up in the pit lane for sure.

The purpose of this is to promote your Tour de 4 charity ride in September. Tell us a little bit more about Tour de 4 and what the goals are?

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2023, and stage 4 essentially means it's incurable. The Tour de 4 is a mass participation cycle ride in Glasgow on September the 7th that aims to raise £1,000,000 for cancer charities across the UK. But it's also hoping to change perceptions of what stage 4 cancer diagnosis can look like. Here's me still going racing at Le Mans. You know, in my mind, certainly when I was given my diagnosis, I had a very clear image in my head of what stage 4 diagnosis might look like. Of course, that's further down the line and not everybody is as lucky as I am to be in this position but while I'm strong, healthy and fit enough I want to make the most of every moment and this is a massive part of that. I hope that there will be other people who are going through a similar situation to me that can take inspiration from what we're trying to do with the Tour de 4. Certainly, there will be lots of people in a similar book to me coming to the cycle ride, and you don't have to be a super fit cyclist to do it. There's something for everybody. There’s a 57-mile ride, a 37-mile ride, and we’ve got a closed kilometre loop that you can ride around to your heart's content. We’ve even got stationary bikes in the track centre in Glasgow so you can book in for anything from one minute to 20, so no matter what your health or visit physical fitness level is you can join in and feel part of it.

You posted something recently about the importance of getting checked out by a doctor for prostate cancer, and a lot of our employees are men over 40. Have you got a message for those guys?

Yes, it’s really simple. Go to Google online, search for prostate risk checker and a thing pops up from Prostate Cancer UK. There are three questions and it takes literally 30 seconds to do, and it could save your life in terms of if you’ve got a little, medium or high risk. If you've got high risk, just go to your doctor and say I'm a high risk, can I get a PSA test? The PSA test is not perfect because it's just a blood test and it's not 100 per cent accurate, but it's the best we've got at this time, and it could save your life. My grandpa and my dad both had prostate cancer so I was aware of it, but I was always told that it is when you're over 50 that you should start keeping an eye on it. But it can come earlier than that and it did with me and by the time I realised, it was too late. There were no symptoms. The first symptom I had was secondary bone metastasis and at that point it had spread. So, anybody over 40, anybody that knows a man over the age of 40, checking is easy and simple and it’s quick. Trust me, if I could have appreciated it can happen to men under the age of 50, then I would have done this myself.  Already we've reached hundreds of thousands of men across the UK and hopefully saved thousands of lives, so go online and check it out and see what your risk is.

About Tour de 4
Tour de 4 is a brand-new cycling initiative, born from Sir Chris Hoy’s vision to change perceptions around stage 4 cancer following his own diagnosis. Encouraging those affected by cancer directly or indirectly to come together for this inaugural event, and anyone who can ride a bike is encouraged to take part.

Participating will help challenge perceptions about cancer and raise vital funds for cancer charities across the UK. Interested? Click this link to sign up now, set your challenge from our choice of rides, and be part of a movement that's pedalling towards a future with better cancer treatments and outcomes. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so here.