MacLean reflects on what should have been

Published on Saturday 11 September 2004 01:03

AS THE Scottish medal winners from Athens gathered in Edinburgh this week there was a sense that somebody was missing. There were four Olympic medallists; there should have been five. Chris Hoy knew it better than anyone.

Craig MacLean seemed to be there in spirit if not in body, which, unfortunately, is not dissimilar to how he felt in Athens. One should avoid at all costs using the word "tragedy" in a sporting context, but the great sadness of the Olympics, from a Scottish perspective, is that MacLean returned empty-handed.

It left a poignant air to proceedings this week, as Hoy basked in the acclaim and adulation that is his due.

Withdrawing for a moment from that, he admitted as much. "If Craig had been the Craig we know, then he’d have been up there on the podium with me, and I’m sorry he wasn’t," Hoy said.

MacLean is not one for melodrama, and it is difficult to imagine anyone less inclined to feel sorry for himself. He is sometimes caricatured as the happy-go-lucky Highlander with a colourful past as an undertaker, piano tuner and rock guitarist. But as unassuming and down to earth as he certainly is, MacLean is also an outstanding athlete and a pioneer in British cycling in the mould of those other exceptional individuals who surface occasionally - Robert Millar and Graeme Obree spring to mind - who, with nobody to follow, forge ahead on their own, creating a path for others to follow.

As Hoy has admitted, it was MacLean’s path that he followed in the early days - and look where it has taken him.

Athens should have been MacLean’s crowning glory. He is 33 now, but in the last two years he had been going faster and faster, beating Hoy last season in the British championships, and cementing his reputation as the fastest man in the world over one lap of the track.

On the Friday evening of Hoy’s triumph, MacLean finished seventh in the kilometre - hardly a disaster - and then, the following morning, assumed his customary role as lead-out man in the team sprint. But something was not right.

"On the Friday, after the kilo, despite everything that had happened, I was still very optimistic and confident," said MacLean. "But when I found out what my time was for my opening lap, I just felt utter disbelief. It was six-tenths off my best. Sixty or 70 metres into the ride I thought I was going to pass out. There was no subconscious about it - I consciously had to back off at that point. And obviously that was very detrimental."

The British team qualified, but only just, and MacLean was dropped from the team to face Germany in the first round. The new team recovered to record the second fastest time of the competition, but Germany, their opponents, recorded the fastest. The British team sprinters were out of the competition, and out of the medals - the first time that had happened in a world championship or Olympic Games since 1998.

For MacLean it brought "crushing" disappointment, and it confirmed his worst fears. When he refers to "everything that had happened", what he means is that this has been a year-long struggle with health problems, after contracting glandular fever during winter. And for all that he willed himself to be at his best in Athens, it was this, in the end, that defeated him.

"The illness began to show at the end of November," MacLean said. "We were training in Australia and I’d gone out to New Caledonia in the South Pacific to ride a six-day race. I got ill on the last day and from that point I was never right. It started off with a chest infection and sore throats. When I came back to the UK in February I had blood tests done, and they showed I’d been exposed to the virus."

There were good days and bad days. But although there were question marks over his form, there have never been any doubts about his ability. In Manchester in April, at the World Cup, MacLean had one of his better weekends, winning the kilometre and leading GB team sprint gold. Things were looking up. But his health was fragile, and four weeks before the Games he suffered a disastrous setback, being floored by tonsillitis.

"It kept me off the bike for a week, and then I eased myself back in, and I had a few good days; days where I thought, ‘I’ll be all right’. It was hit or miss, but as long as there’s a chance you have to think positively. I was doing a lot of mental rehearsal, putting myself in as positive a frame of mind as I could under the circumstances. And you start believing it - that’s how it works. But when you’re so down, physically, and then mentally, there comes a point when it just stops being effective."

For all that MacLean was disappointed with his own performance in the kilometre, he was the first rider to offer warm congratulations to an emotional Hoy. Given that the two started training together 12 years ago, their bear hug provided a touching, genuine moment, while also highlighting the wafer-thin line between success and failure.

"Really, what I felt then and now is just immensely happy for Chris, and extremely proud of him," says MacLean. "I honestly think there’s never been a more deserving champion. He trains like an absolute trooper, he’s so single-minded, and he really did deserve that. He rode like a champion. He got up there last as reigning world champion, which is the hardest thing to do."

MacLean’s first priority now is to regain his health.

"Apparently what I need is ‘aggressive rest’," he laughed. "I’ve no idea what that means - lying in bed shouting at people perhaps? I think it means doing as little as possible."

As for the future, he said he’d like to move into coaching. But he hints such a move may still be four years away. "I’m trying to put the disappointment behind me, which is not easy," he said. "But you have to get on with it; in the real world, it’s not the be-all and end-all. Graeme Obree summed it up after his most recent attempt at the world hour record, when he came off the track and said: ‘Well, nobody died’. You have to keep a sense of perspective.

"If I can get riding again and I’m still enjoying it then I don’t see any reason not to carry on. I’m contracted up until next year’s world championship in Los Angeles in March. My results will determine my funding."

While MacLean is hardly unusual in being reluctant to make too many plans in the immediate aftermath of Athens, his decision will be dependent not only on his enjoyment, and a desire to "get on with normal life", but also his health. Otherwise, he has nothing to prove, and he admits to being "pretty pleased" with the haul of Olympic, Commonwealth and world championship medals he has already accrued.

But he doesn’t discount going on to Beijing. "If I carry on it’ll be to aim for the next Olympics," he said. "There’s also the Commonwealth Games, where we would have a great chance of gold in the team sprint.

"Probably the highlight of my career was being the flag bearer for the Scotland team in Manchester. Chris and I were supposed to be joint flag-bearers, but he stepped aside. He should get the opportunity in Melbourne. He deserves it."