2020 OLYMPICS PREVIEW - MEET TEAM GB

They’re back on track cycling’s biggest stage so how are Britain’s Olympians coping with pre-performance jitters?

- Vern Pitt

MEN’S ENDURANCE

ED CLANCY

Age: 36

Olympics: 3

Medals: 3 gold, 1 bronze

The Barnsley-born rider is the most successful team pursuiter of all time, having won gold at three successive Olympic Games. But he nearly didn’t get on the flight to Tokyo. “I did think long and hard about if I wanted to carry on for another year,” he says when asked about the delay to the Games. “I spoke to a lot of people, friends, family; I spoke to current riders, ex riders... probably the most meaningful were Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas, who both said go for it. That was probably the answer I was looking for.”

Lockdown, however, has brought some benefits for Clancy, allowing him to maintain an almost monastic lifestyle. “I’ve never felt like I’ve had a greater ability to concentrate on eating and sleeping and riding the bike fast,” he says. But he isn’t shy in saying that this year’s assault on a fourth Olympic gold will be the toughest. “We are underdogs, it is fair to call us that at this point in time,” he says to the press, including CW, ahead of flying out.

Indeed the team was fifth at the last World Championships and was, as Clancy put it, “arguably somewhat fortunate” to get that.

But he’s relishing the reduced pressure. “We have no expectation this time, we can only do well, we can only turn things around and do a good job. So I’m happy about that, it feels good,” he said.