'I went down fighting, and now I'm busier than ever' - Ed Clancy on life after the Olympics, his new role as Active Travel Commissioner

Be it an intense training session on the boards at Manchester, an Olympic final or even just a regular interview, it was his love for something so freeing that shone through.

So it is perhaps no surprise that for the second half of his professional life, riding a bike remains at the very heart of what he does.

Two years after his abrupt decision to retire from competitive cycling in the midst of the Tokyo Olympic team pursuit competition, Yorkshire’s most decorated Olympian is busier than ever.

He has ambassadorial roles for CAMS (Cycle Accident Management Services) which helps people get back on the bike and helps vulnerable road users, and for EBK which promotes the use of electric bikes.

Clancy can still be found at the British Cycling velodrome – “a place very close to my heart, I’ll probably be there until the day they roll me into the grave” – working with the design and coaching teams.

But the job that has demanded most of his time since taking up the post for just a few hours a week in January, is that of Active Travel Commissioner for South Yorkshire.

“The three other things, and public speaking as well, all you’re doing is using your past,” Clancy tells The Yorkshire Post. “Whereas with this job – of course there’s an element of levering your platform as an Olympian – but it’s new skills I’m learning. It’s a new environment and I love it.

“I’m doing as much work as I possibly can; mornings, evenings, weekends and I’m very much getting my teeth into the job. Why am I trying so hard? Because I believe in it.”

As part of the nationwide Active Travel plan, and together with South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Clancy is working towards getting 350 per cent more people cycling, 100 per cent more people walking and 50 per cent more people making the choice to walk by 2030.

How do they do that? “It’s not just bike lanes, it’s better pavements, crossings, safer junctions, lower speed limits in town centres so kids can walk to school,” says Clancy.

“Essentially it’s all about trying to get rid of cars which are so problematic for a number of reasons.”

And typically for a man rarely seen off his bike, more often than not he can be found practising what he preaches.

“I live in Holmfirth and ride an e-commuter bike into the offices in Sheffield. Because I’m a somewhat confident cyclist, I’m happy to do that,” he explains.

“If I use a car it’ll take me 50 minutes to get into the office and it’ll cost me five or six quid in electricity to do so and probably 30 quid in parking.

“On your e-bike it’ll take you marginally longer but you can charge it up for 15p for half a kilowatt of battery and you can do 50 miles which will get you there and back and you’ll turn up feeling happier, healthier and fresher.

“But that’s me, I’m confident to use what infrastructure we have today, but a lot of people won’t be. And that’s the long term goal.”

Like many before him, the transition from full-time athlete with a singular Olympic goal into the real world of every-day life has not been easy. But after that initial few months of staring at the phone waiting for it to ring, he has found a lot of skills transfer from his old life into his new.

“In terms of achieving targets and dreams, it’s very similar,” he says. “I can sit with (Mayor) Oliver Coppard and it’s like I’m sitting with the Olympic team talking about what we want to achieve. Where we’re at with the Active Travel plan is mapping out steps, a logical, thought through attainable process that’s going to get us there. We can underpin that with bike-hire schemes, infrastructure – all your focus lies on building a team around what you need to deliver those sub-goals, just like when planning for an Olympics.”

Talking of the Olympics, Clancy didn’t do too bad, did he? Three Olympic golds in the team pursuit (2008, 2012, 2016) plus an individual bronze in the omnium in London.

After his team pursuit squad failed to reach the medal rounds of the delayed Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, Clancy quit there and then. “I took my sport as far as I could, maybe a little bit too far in the end,” he reflects now.

“Did I still want to be there? Yeah, I did. I went down fighting in the end.

“I do think I would have approached the last two or three years differently, in hindsight.

“I know I stepped away from it suddenly but I always had this mental line in the sand. For what it’s worth, I’m glad I made that call. I had no interest in dragging it on or fading away.”

Ask him how he reflects on his Olympic career now, and Clancy pauses for what feels like the length it used to take him to cycle round a velodrome.

“It’s still an ongoing process, to be honest,” he eventually says.

“So many people come up to me and say ‘you’re smashing it, all these different things, aren’t you doing so well’.

"But I don’t know a single one of my team-mates who has retired that hasn’t struggled.

“We’re well supported, and I was grateful for all the support I received from British Cycling through their performance lifestyle advisor, to help integrate you into the real world.

“That said, I’m still lucky enough to work with British Cycling. I’m very lucky to have great ambassador jobs, and I only get involved with things in believe in.

“I’ve got no interest in my sporting ability any more. I love working with the research and development team designing bikes, it really floats my boat, but in terms of me and my sporting pedigree, I’m not interested, that chapter of my life has closed.

“Truth is I don’t care that much about my cycling career, I’m way more interested in what the future holds.

“I want the Olympics to be just the start, I don’t want that to define Ed Clancy.

"That’s what I did for the first 16 years of my working life. I hope I’m sat here in 20 years time when I’m 58 and we’re saying this is all the good stuff that we did.

“The best thing about retiring, funnily enough, is riding bikes, both as transport but also leisure.

“I still love going out on my mountain bike on a trail on a Saturday or a Sunday.”

Some things about Ed Clancy will never change.