“I don’t dwell on the past too much,” says Logan Maclean as he looks ahead to another potentially career defining season. The Scot enters 2024 as a first year senior and the spearhead of the new Elite Development Team, Project1, after a challenging time as an under-23, including recovering from a broken back and a tough time in France with the AG2R-Citroën U23 team. His ambition is clear: to be Scotland’s next professional cyclist.
I want to do what Zeb’s done, seeing what him and Charlie Paige have done, it’s quite motivating
Speaking to TheBritish Continental from his hometown of Stirling, Maclean is upbeat and enthusiastic about the coming season, as he sets out his goals. “For me, a successful year would be to go pro,” he declares. “I want to do what Zeb’s [Kyffin] done, seeing what him and Charlie Paige have done, it’s quite motivating.”
The duo joined the ProTeam TDT-Unibet over the winter, with Kyffin at 26 years of age, a veteran by neo-pro standards, earning the ride after a number of years with British teams. The Londoner’s journey resonates with Maclean, who admits he may not fit the bill of a typical neo-pro anymore.
2022 Ryedale GP – Logan Maclean of Team Wheelbase CabTech Castelli. Image: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com
“Teams are looking for younger riders, but I still think if you can put on some good results and good numbers, then it’s possible,” he says. “Teams can take on a young rider but it can be quite a gamble. You can take on a rider who’s a bit older, they’ve proven themselves a bit more, it’s less of a gamble for teams.”
At 23, Maclean still has time to make his mark on the sport, although he feels he is ready to make the step up sooner rather than later. “I’m where I need to be, I’m in a good position. Right now I’m doing better numbers than I’ve ever done before, more training, eating better, sleeping better. It’s all looking good for the future.”
Maclean spent time over the winter in Girona, Catalyuna’s cycling mecca, training with riders he hopes to emulate by joining the professional ranks, something that inspired him further. “One of my closest friends is Oscar Onley and I spent some time with him in Girona and met some of his teammates that ride for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL. Mark Stewart, doing what he did in the UAE, that was so inspirational. I was training with him in Girona, and he was telling me what he hoped for the season, then he was in the UAE smashing it, it’s kind of crazy.
“It’s like I’m training with these guys, and living with these guys, and I really want to make that step up so I’m racing with these guys as well.”
Maclean is the headline name in the new Project1 team, an Elite Development Team put together by Darren and Debbie Brown. The team features some of the best young riders in the UK such as Junior Cicle Classic winner Ben Marsh, and gives riders the opportunity to race an expansive European calendar, as well as in the UK.
We’ve got a team house in Bordighera, Italy, and a team house in Belgium
“We’ve got a team house in Bordighera, Italy, not far from the [French] border, and a team house in Belgium. We’re racing a lot around these areas,” Maclean reveals, noting the team have races lined up in Monaco, Switzerland and the Netherlands as well as Belgium, France and Italy. “We’ve got an Italian DS, Flavio, he’s a multiple amateur world champion who knows the Italian system like the back of his hand, and Andy Tinsley who will be our DS for some of the races in UK.”
2022 Ryedale GP – Logan Maclean of Team Wheelbase CabTech Castelli. Image: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com
Maclean plans to spend much of the next two months in Italy, a country he raced and stayed in last year on a trip with his Wheelbase CabTech Castelli team, organised by Debbie and Darren Brown, providing the inspiration for Project1.
Culturally, the country is like no place Maclean has raced before, both on and off the bike. “Cycling is much bigger in Italy, even if it’s just a regional race, the roads are lined with people watching. People will go and have a barbecue, make a day of watching a bike race,” he explains. “It’s so different compared to the UK where you get to the finish and there’s just a guy with a flag. You can race with some hitter riders here, but it’s not as special, it should be much grander.
“Italy’s just mental, I’ve never been anywhere so mental in my whole life as training in Italy. The traffic is mental, people are just extravagant, there’s just always something going on.”
Maclean found Italian racing to be in stark contrast to the hectic nature of its society, enjoying the challenge. “Italy’s different to anywhere else that I’ve raced. When you watch a professional race and it starts, you’ve got riders trying to get in the break, teams on the front. That’s what it’s like, it’s very controlled. You’ve got teams at the front, chasing, keeping the break at a certain distance, then at the end, it is whoever is strongest.”
In Italy, you roll into it easier, and at end, if you’ve got the endurance, which is where I’m used to it, you can push on harder. So for me, Italy is a good place to race
The slow-burning nature of Italian racing suits the Scot, who defines himself as something of a puncheur. “When you get to a climb at the end in Italy, you’ve not been hammering yourself for kilometres. The racing’s really fast, it’s like the first lap of a Prem, but at the end of a race. That suits me better. I find when I’m doing a race here, and the start is hard, I can go with the moves, but after a while my legs lock up a bit. In Italy, you roll into it easier, and at end, if you’ve got the endurance, which is where I’m used to it, you can push on harder. So for me, Italy is a good place to race.”
2023 Under 23 Yorkshire Classic. Logan Maclean of Team AG2R Citroen U23. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Maclean’s main experience of racing abroad prior to the Italian trip was with the AG2R-Citroën U23 team, whom he joined towards the end of 2022, staying with the team for a year. The experience was one that proved to be difficult, and not one he expected. “It was a lot more old fashioned than I expected,” he sums up, telling a story of a power struggle, internal politics and clashes of personalities strangling the team.
The U23 team had internal management and they wanted to keep it DN1 and not link it too much to the WorldTour team, so the WorldTour team couldn’t give them the best support because of that clash of personalities
“If you look at the U19 AG2R team, and the WorldTour team, they are completely linked – the junior team is the best in the world and the WorldTour squad one of the best. The U23 team had internal management and they wanted to keep it DN1 and not link it too much to the WorldTour team, so the WorldTour team couldn’t give them the best support because of that clash of personalities.
“I expected the WorldTour team to take a grip of it and they couldn’t. For example, my coach on the team Luc Cheilan , he is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, a really experienced guy, it was like he was kept on a leash within the team. It was confusing, they weren’t always interested in power, or nutrition, where Luc wanted everything to be perfect, as it should be. If you want to be competitive, you’ve got to get the most out of everything you’ve got.
“The U23 team last year, we didn’t win a race. To have that pressure and not win, it was a big shock. I wish I was on the new Continental team [a team directly linked to the WorldTour outfit, replacing the DN1 club setup], where Steve Lampier is a DS. I can see them going really far this year, being really competitive like the FDJ Continental team.”
Maclean looks back on his time in France in a largely positive light, the good outweighing the bad, his coach having a lot to do with the enjoyment Maclean experienced there.
“At the time it didn’t quite live up to what I had hoped for,” he says, “But, it was a brilliant opportunity, I got to race abroad, live abroad, meet new people.
“I was lucky to have Luc on the team, without him I would have been out of place. He actually said to me mid way through the year when I wasn’t getting raced as much as I maybe should have, you need to go to another team because you’re not going to get the opportunities you deserve.”
2023 Men’s Lancaster Grand Prix – Logan Maclean of AG2R Citroën U23 Team. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Maclean reveals that Cheilan was let go by the team a week after that conversation, Maclean himself coming back to the UK and putting in an eye-catching ride for a top 10 in the Lancaster GP. The Frenchman continued to coach Maclean until the season ending Beaumont Trophy as he secured a return to Wheelbase CabTech Castelli, such was the strength of their relationship; the pair parting ways with Cheilan ironically taking up a role with the WorldTour team.
“A lot of people have said to me I’m crazy for leaving and going back to Wheelbase, but if they knew what was happening, they’d understand,” notes Maclean. “But at the same time, I don’t want to steer kids away from going to France. I was speaking to a young lad [Isaac Oliver] after the Clayton Spring Classic, and he was asking about France, and I told him you should try and go, you learn so much. There might be some bits you don’t agree with, it’s maybe not fair, but what you do learn from being there outweighs that.”
Maclean’s journey to France was as difficult and complex as his time there, marred by a potentially career ending incident, where he was left with a broken back after being knocked off his bike by a careless driver in January 2021. “When I first got hit by the car, everything to do with cycling just didn’t matter,” he recalls, understandably.
“At the time, it was like I’ve got so much more to live for, especially in hospital. I was shocked that it happened and the most important thing was my family. I wasn’t thinking of cycling up until I got out of hospital.
All I wanted to do was get back on my bike. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could get back to where I needed to be
“Then it was the road to recovery, and all I wanted to do was get back on my bike. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could get back to where I needed to be, I didn’t want that to be the deciding factor. My whole life’s been cycling – I’ve always watched it, always loved racing.”
Maclean says coming back to training on the road was initially difficult. “I was scared,” he admits. “My Dad bought a scooter, and when I first started going out on the road he would follow me. Initially my confidence just wasn’t there, but over time it slowly started to build.”
With new Project1 in Monaco. Image: supplied
Maclean is still wary of the dangers the open roads can pose, only going out when conditions are suitable. Through his recovery he found a love for the turbo, something he has stuck with under the guidance of long-term coach John Archibald. “I love the turbo. My coach, John, is big into turbo, and it’s rubbed off on me.”
It has set me back, but I’m doing everything correct. I’m in a position where it’s been a hindrance, but at the same time I can’t use it as an excuse, because now I’m in an even better place
The lengthy recovery period meant that Maclean would miss the vast majority of his second under-23 year, returning to racing for a limited programme in July. Together with losing the entirety of 2020 to the Covid-19 pandemic, does Maclean think these two missed years have set him back on his journey towards the professional ranks? “I don’t know, cycling’s a funny sport,” he answers thoughtfully. “I might have got results at the beginning of being an under-23 that could have put me in a better position, but at the same time there’s no guarantee of anything. It has set me back, but I’m doing everything correct. I’m in a position where it’s been a hindrance, but at the same time I can’t use it as an excuse, because now I’m in an even better place.”
Maclean raced with the Wheelbase CabTech Castelli team as an under-23 for the vast majority of his time in the UK, joining them when he came back to racing in 2021 after graduating from the Spokes Racing Team as a junior.
“They’re just a really good team. They don’t have the biggest budget or race as much abroad, but they do everything right. They’ve got a great mechanic in Tyla Loftus, one of the best I’ve worked with, ” Maclean says, having parted ways with the Cumbrian outfit at the end of last year as he looks to further his career.
“I love all the guys at Wheelbase, but Stu [Reid] the team manager, and Toby [Dalton] the owner, they’ve always said to me, if you need to go to progress, or race abroad, do what you need to do, they’ll always be there to help me.
“I’d never make a sideways move, I spoke to Stu and he was of the opinion it would be a good move to Project1, because I might get the race calendar I need to help me go pro and they’ve got my best interests at heart. I was just happy I got another chance to race for them.”
“I don’t dwell on the past too much,” says Logan Maclean as he looks ahead to another potentially career defining season. The Scot enters 2024 as a first year senior and the spearhead of the new Elite Development Team, Project1, after a challenging time as an under-23, including recovering from a broken back and a tough time in France with the AG2R-Citroën U23 team. His ambition is clear: to be Scotland’s next professional cyclist.
Speaking to The British Continental from his hometown of Stirling, Maclean is upbeat and enthusiastic about the coming season, as he sets out his goals. “For me, a successful year would be to go pro,” he declares. “I want to do what Zeb’s [Kyffin] done, seeing what him and Charlie Paige have done, it’s quite motivating.”
The duo joined the ProTeam TDT-Unibet over the winter, with Kyffin at 26 years of age, a veteran by neo-pro standards, earning the ride after a number of years with British teams. The Londoner’s journey resonates with Maclean, who admits he may not fit the bill of a typical neo-pro anymore.
“Teams are looking for younger riders, but I still think if you can put on some good results and good numbers, then it’s possible,” he says. “Teams can take on a young rider but it can be quite a gamble. You can take on a rider who’s a bit older, they’ve proven themselves a bit more, it’s less of a gamble for teams.”
At 23, Maclean still has time to make his mark on the sport, although he feels he is ready to make the step up sooner rather than later. “I’m where I need to be, I’m in a good position. Right now I’m doing better numbers than I’ve ever done before, more training, eating better, sleeping better. It’s all looking good for the future.”
Maclean spent time over the winter in Girona, Catalyuna’s cycling mecca, training with riders he hopes to emulate by joining the professional ranks, something that inspired him further. “One of my closest friends is Oscar Onley and I spent some time with him in Girona and met some of his teammates that ride for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL. Mark Stewart, doing what he did in the UAE, that was so inspirational. I was training with him in Girona, and he was telling me what he hoped for the season, then he was in the UAE smashing it, it’s kind of crazy.
“It’s like I’m training with these guys, and living with these guys, and I really want to make that step up so I’m racing with these guys as well.”
Maclean is the headline name in the new Project1 team, an Elite Development Team put together by Darren and Debbie Brown. The team features some of the best young riders in the UK such as Junior Cicle Classic winner Ben Marsh, and gives riders the opportunity to race an expansive European calendar, as well as in the UK.
“We’ve got a team house in Bordighera, Italy, not far from the [French] border, and a team house in Belgium. We’re racing a lot around these areas,” Maclean reveals, noting the team have races lined up in Monaco, Switzerland and the Netherlands as well as Belgium, France and Italy. “We’ve got an Italian DS, Flavio, he’s a multiple amateur world champion who knows the Italian system like the back of his hand, and Andy Tinsley who will be our DS for some of the races in UK.”
Maclean plans to spend much of the next two months in Italy, a country he raced and stayed in last year on a trip with his Wheelbase CabTech Castelli team, organised by Debbie and Darren Brown, providing the inspiration for Project1.
Culturally, the country is like no place Maclean has raced before, both on and off the bike. “Cycling is much bigger in Italy, even if it’s just a regional race, the roads are lined with people watching. People will go and have a barbecue, make a day of watching a bike race,” he explains. “It’s so different compared to the UK where you get to the finish and there’s just a guy with a flag. You can race with some hitter riders here, but it’s not as special, it should be much grander.
“Italy’s just mental, I’ve never been anywhere so mental in my whole life as training in Italy. The traffic is mental, people are just extravagant, there’s just always something going on.”
Maclean found Italian racing to be in stark contrast to the hectic nature of its society, enjoying the challenge. “Italy’s different to anywhere else that I’ve raced. When you watch a professional race and it starts, you’ve got riders trying to get in the break, teams on the front. That’s what it’s like, it’s very controlled. You’ve got teams at the front, chasing, keeping the break at a certain distance, then at the end, it is whoever is strongest.”
The slow-burning nature of Italian racing suits the Scot, who defines himself as something of a puncheur. “When you get to a climb at the end in Italy, you’ve not been hammering yourself for kilometres. The racing’s really fast, it’s like the first lap of a Prem, but at the end of a race. That suits me better. I find when I’m doing a race here, and the start is hard, I can go with the moves, but after a while my legs lock up a bit. In Italy, you roll into it easier, and at end, if you’ve got the endurance, which is where I’m used to it, you can push on harder. So for me, Italy is a good place to race.”
Maclean’s main experience of racing abroad prior to the Italian trip was with the AG2R-Citroën U23 team, whom he joined towards the end of 2022, staying with the team for a year. The experience was one that proved to be difficult, and not one he expected. “It was a lot more old fashioned than I expected,” he sums up, telling a story of a power struggle, internal politics and clashes of personalities strangling the team.
“If you look at the U19 AG2R team, and the WorldTour team, they are completely linked – the junior team is the best in the world and the WorldTour squad one of the best. The U23 team had internal management and they wanted to keep it DN1 and not link it too much to the WorldTour team, so the WorldTour team couldn’t give them the best support because of that clash of personalities.
“I expected the WorldTour team to take a grip of it and they couldn’t. For example, my coach on the team Luc Cheilan , he is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, a really experienced guy, it was like he was kept on a leash within the team. It was confusing, they weren’t always interested in power, or nutrition, where Luc wanted everything to be perfect, as it should be. If you want to be competitive, you’ve got to get the most out of everything you’ve got.
“The U23 team last year, we didn’t win a race. To have that pressure and not win, it was a big shock. I wish I was on the new Continental team [a team directly linked to the WorldTour outfit, replacing the DN1 club setup], where Steve Lampier is a DS. I can see them going really far this year, being really competitive like the FDJ Continental team.”
Maclean looks back on his time in France in a largely positive light, the good outweighing the bad, his coach having a lot to do with the enjoyment Maclean experienced there.
“At the time it didn’t quite live up to what I had hoped for,” he says, “But, it was a brilliant opportunity, I got to race abroad, live abroad, meet new people.
“I was lucky to have Luc on the team, without him I would have been out of place. He actually said to me mid way through the year when I wasn’t getting raced as much as I maybe should have, you need to go to another team because you’re not going to get the opportunities you deserve.”
Maclean reveals that Cheilan was let go by the team a week after that conversation, Maclean himself coming back to the UK and putting in an eye-catching ride for a top 10 in the Lancaster GP. The Frenchman continued to coach Maclean until the season ending Beaumont Trophy as he secured a return to Wheelbase CabTech Castelli, such was the strength of their relationship; the pair parting ways with Cheilan ironically taking up a role with the WorldTour team.
“A lot of people have said to me I’m crazy for leaving and going back to Wheelbase, but if they knew what was happening, they’d understand,” notes Maclean. “But at the same time, I don’t want to steer kids away from going to France. I was speaking to a young lad [Isaac Oliver] after the Clayton Spring Classic, and he was asking about France, and I told him you should try and go, you learn so much. There might be some bits you don’t agree with, it’s maybe not fair, but what you do learn from being there outweighs that.”
Maclean’s journey to France was as difficult and complex as his time there, marred by a potentially career ending incident, where he was left with a broken back after being knocked off his bike by a careless driver in January 2021. “When I first got hit by the car, everything to do with cycling just didn’t matter,” he recalls, understandably.
“At the time, it was like I’ve got so much more to live for, especially in hospital. I was shocked that it happened and the most important thing was my family. I wasn’t thinking of cycling up until I got out of hospital.
“Then it was the road to recovery, and all I wanted to do was get back on my bike. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could get back to where I needed to be, I didn’t want that to be the deciding factor. My whole life’s been cycling – I’ve always watched it, always loved racing.”
Maclean says coming back to training on the road was initially difficult. “I was scared,” he admits. “My Dad bought a scooter, and when I first started going out on the road he would follow me. Initially my confidence just wasn’t there, but over time it slowly started to build.”
Maclean is still wary of the dangers the open roads can pose, only going out when conditions are suitable. Through his recovery he found a love for the turbo, something he has stuck with under the guidance of long-term coach John Archibald. “I love the turbo. My coach, John, is big into turbo, and it’s rubbed off on me.”
The lengthy recovery period meant that Maclean would miss the vast majority of his second under-23 year, returning to racing for a limited programme in July. Together with losing the entirety of 2020 to the Covid-19 pandemic, does Maclean think these two missed years have set him back on his journey towards the professional ranks? “I don’t know, cycling’s a funny sport,” he answers thoughtfully. “I might have got results at the beginning of being an under-23 that could have put me in a better position, but at the same time there’s no guarantee of anything. It has set me back, but I’m doing everything correct. I’m in a position where it’s been a hindrance, but at the same time I can’t use it as an excuse, because now I’m in an even better place.”
Maclean raced with the Wheelbase CabTech Castelli team as an under-23 for the vast majority of his time in the UK, joining them when he came back to racing in 2021 after graduating from the Spokes Racing Team as a junior.
“They’re just a really good team. They don’t have the biggest budget or race as much abroad, but they do everything right. They’ve got a great mechanic in Tyla Loftus, one of the best I’ve worked with, ” Maclean says, having parted ways with the Cumbrian outfit at the end of last year as he looks to further his career.
“I love all the guys at Wheelbase, but Stu [Reid] the team manager, and Toby [Dalton] the owner, they’ve always said to me, if you need to go to progress, or race abroad, do what you need to do, they’ll always be there to help me.
“I’d never make a sideways move, I spoke to Stu and he was of the opinion it would be a good move to Project1, because I might get the race calendar I need to help me go pro and they’ve got my best interests at heart. I was just happy I got another chance to race for them.”
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
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