Ed Clancy Defends his Stripes

Ed Clancy Ready to Defend His Stripes

Story posted March 18
By Larry Hickmott

20070330_TR_Worlds_D2Ev_TP_01

Gold in 2007 for Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Paul Manning and Ed Clancy.

Prior to the Athens Olympics in 2004, Team GB (Cycling) started looking at introducing new programmes to find new talent to keep the momentum going of winning Olympic medals. In Sydney they had won Bronze, and in Athens 2004 they won Silver but riders in the team were continuing to retire. First Jonny Clay after Sydney and then Bryan Steel after Athens. One of the new programmes the team introduced in January 2004 was the Olympic Academy and part of the first intake was Ed Clancy along with another cycling star Mark Cavendish.

In 2005, this new kid on the block was quickly making a name for himself in the Team Pursuit when at the World Track Championships, he rode the first round and helped GB book their place in the final for Gold. Ed was left out of the final and had to watch as his team were given their ‘stripes’ on the podium.

To make matters worse, around the time of the Commonwealth Games in 2006, he went through a rough patch in training and said afterwards that he expected to be making houses or at university rather than still racing. In 2007 Ed was indeed racing and better still, on the podium in Majorca to get a rainbow jersey. Ed is acknowledged by no less a cycling star as Bradley Wiggins as the fastest man one rider in the world and at the last World Track Championships Clancy joined Bradley, Geraint Thomas and Paul Manning on the podium to be given his first World Championship rainbow jersey.

The Huddersfield, lad who now has a house on the other side of the M6 in Newton le Willows, is continuing to create a unique spot in the team for an event that was made for him. It is by no means easy for him though and for those four minutes or less of racing in a final, he spends days, weeks, months on the road in Belgium building up his power and strength to ensure he keeps that spot in a team where competition for places is fierce.

2008_Team_Pursuit_Start_Training_01

Ed leads the team out of the starting gate during training yesterday.

During training last week, Ed was a clear second faster off the line than anyone else, and he was struggling with a cold at the time! He has his fingers crossed the cold goes and he can get on with defending that rainbow jersey in Manchester on his home track. Not that he gets to wear the stripy jersey much as he explains. “Brad and I rode with them on in Sydney and it was nice but as soon as you win the World Cup event, you’re in the World Cup colours which is not as quite as nice but still good.”

Talking about the event he specialises in, Ed says to us “the Team Pursuit seems to be one of the things I am good at so I concentrate on it and do my best. It just seems to be my physical make up which makes me ideal for the event. I think out of all the endurance riders, myself and Steven Burke are more sprint orientated endurance riders and to be a good team pursuiter you have to have good aerobic power but you also have to be a punchy rider -- not a level power one -- very on off and you have to be able to make big numbers on the front”.

Asked if all the big guns like Bradley Wiggins and Steve Cummings from that Athens 2004 Silver medal winning team coming back, add to the pressure of keeping his place in the team he shows his confidence by saying “I think baring illness or injury and I am ill at the moment, I feel pretty safe in the team. I have done a good job during the World Cup season and I hope my health holds out for the next couple of weeks and I can’t wait to rip around here and have a go at this world record.”

Asked if was pleased with his times despite not being 100 per cent, he says yes, but adds “Its hard to keep your head on being ill. It’s one of my weak points when not everything is right. We’re two weeks out from the Worlds and I want everything to be right and be on top of my game.”

2008_Team_Pursuit_Start_Training_Clancy

More pictures from training yesterday as Ed Clancy leads the team into the turn at the end of the home straight during one of many efforts under the watchful eye of GB Performance Manager Shane Sutton and National Endurance coach Matt Parker.

Ed says it will be a bit bizarre being on the home track for a World Championship. “Last year at the World Cup here was a strange experience because you are so used to training round here with one man and his dog in the stands. So having the home crowd here will be great and I am hoping everyone comes along and enjoys it and gets behind us for the Olympics. I think the whole GB team will do something special come the Olympics.”

Talking about his training, he says “we have just finished our last endurance road block overloading in Majorca and that was very tiring but now we’re into a long taper, reducing the work load more and more and adding in the intensity. We’ve done it before so we’re just going to hit the rewind button and hopefully get the same result we did in Majorca last year.”

The morning we spoke, Ed says the team did 25k of team pursuit efforts in formation and then in the afternoon, concentrated on doing individual efforts that are better performed alone than in formation when there are differences in the sprint abilities of the riders.

On the Olympics, he says it is the big one, the event that really drives an athlete on in training. “It’s one thing doing the Worlds and Commonwealth Games but the Olympics is everything this programme is about, what everybody talks about and something everyone, the public, knows about. I hope I can go there and treat it like just another bike race.”

Finally, being an endurance rider, and after the accident that took Chris Newton out of the championships which took place on the road, Ed admits with all the accidents in the news lately it is a bit frightening to think about training on the road. In his favour though is that he can train abroad a lot., whether that be with his pro team or with team GB in Majorca, and that when he does come back to the UK, a lot of his time is either on the track or with his feet up.

We certainly wish Ed and all the riders a safe journey when they do venture onto the roads and hope they stay safe for the big one in Manchester in a few weeks.

20070620_Crit_Champs_2_Sprint_400