Ed Clancy MBE will be waiting by the phone today to find out whether he has made the cut for Team GB at Rio 2016 and the chance for a record-breaking third successive Olympic team pursuit gold.
Clancy was on the top step of the podium at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, where he also won bronze in the omnium, and is expected to be named in the team again this time for a shot at history.
The 31-year-old finished 18th in the Pearl Izumi Tour Series races in Croydon last Tuesday, but expects that to be his final race on road before switching his attention back to the track.
“It could go one of two ways depending on what phone call I get on Monday,” he said.
“If I get selected then I just keep smashing the track. We’re on the track three, four times a week for the next three, four weeks, then we’re off to the holding camp, then hopefully off to Rio.”
While he finished 18th in Croydon, Clancy’s team, JLT Condor took fourth place on the day and then won the overall Series team crown at the final event in Portsmouth on Thursday.
And Clancy sees a bright future for his team companions Jon Mould, who won in Croydon, and Chris Lawless, and also paid tribute to the experienced Graham Briggs who took the fastest lap.
“As a team we got fourth on the night which isn’t our best result, but having Mouldy win again is cracking and a fastest lap for Briggsy, so we can’t complain,” said Clancy.
“Mouldy is flying, Lawless is absolutely flying as well and the same with Briggsy. If you put him in the right situation he’ll just ride off.”
Croydon saw a revised track layout for its second year hosting the event which lent itself to a spectacular finish, although Clancy didn’t have too much fun with the tight turns of the High Street.
“It was just a horrible race; it reminded me of the circuit in Woking we did with dead turns that were hard enough to make it horrible, but not quite hard enough to make the race split up,” he said.
“There’s just that one corner, a double left hander under the bridge, it’s got that extra grippy tarmac, it was still looking a bit lethal when we rode round for a warm up lap, but it was actually alright.
“My plan was just to start, go as hard as I could for the first ten minutes, make sure I didn’t get dropped or get caught behind some weaker guys and it went to plan.
“Halfway through the race I wasn’t comfy but I was near the front, but when we started going near the end, or when they started going near the end, I just went one way which was backwards and that was that.”
Feature image courtesy of Fitness First UK, via Youtube, with thanks
