Main chant as cyclist retires — hard to puncture two tyres (2-2-2)
I believe the answer is:
yo-ho-ho
'main chant' is the definition.
(the main is an old nickname for the sea)
'cyclist retires hard to puncture two tyres' is the wordplay.
'cyclist' becomes 'hoy' (Sir Chris Hoy).
'retires' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'to puncture' is an insertion indicator.
'two tyres' becomes 'oo' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hoy' back-to-front is 'yoh'.
'h' going inside 'oo' is 'oho'.
'yoh'+'oho'='YO-HO-HO'
'as' is the link.
(Another definition for yo-ho-ho that I've seen is " Old sailors' chant (accompanied by a bottle of rum?)".)