In Olympic cycling, few names resonate with as much respect and admiration as Ed Clancy OBE. Ed established himself as a true titan of the track with a career that spanned nearly twenty years. To this day, no other cyclist matches his Team Pursuit record.
A three-time Olympic gold medallist, multiple world champion and seasoned road racer, Ed’s achievements on the bike are nothing short of extraordinary. But his story goes beyond medals and titles. It is a tale of resilience, continuous self-improvement and a quest for self-awareness and deeper understanding.
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Ed and Phil met in the run-up to the 2016s Rio Olympic Games. At the time, Ed was battling to return to form following a career-altering back injury. Just months earlier he wasn’t sure if he would ever race again.
His then-road team, JLT Condor, were the biggest domestic team in the UK. Team manager, John Herety hired Phil Kelly and Pro-Noctis to work with his riders; to strengthen their mental resolve and better understand each other as teammates through various forms of psychometric testing and profiling.
Having carved his career with Team GB, Ed had been through these sorts of sessions before. British Cycling championed the athletes’ use of psychologists and performance consultants, particularly in the run-up to the Olympic games, and Ed was always on board.
But something about these sessions with Phil struck a particular chord with Ed: “I found myself really resonating with what Phil was saying and the work he had us doing. He began to help me identify ways I was working and operating, and how this then translated to my individual and team performance.
“My default setting was to be quite logic-orientated – drawn to stats, numbers, using that kind of data and intelligence. But, with Phil, we unpacked that in times of stress, I became very task-focused. Often that came at the expense of other people, or pragmatic, adaptive thinking.
“I learned similar things about my teammates, and how they operated. How different people respond to different feedback. It opened my eyes to how to better interact with some of them, and vice versa. I left feeling more connected to them.”
From that point on, Ed took up Phil’s offer of ongoing mentoring and support. They would meet up for chats and sessions in coffee shops; Ed would call Phil after a track session or before a race, or fire him a message to check in. Phil, Ed explains, was a valuable sounding board: “He would help me sort through my thoughts and feelings. For me, it was amazing to have someone who wasn’t directly involved or invested in Team GB, or my day-to-day training. Phil knew how people worked, he knew about athletes, he knew how high-performing people work, and he understood the importance of a team and the dynamics at play.”
“Often our conversations would involve Phil agitating an issue, unpacking what I was really trying to say or what I was truly bothered about. Doing this would help me to understand the problem, and to break it down. We would then look at what I could control, then work to build a solution…if there was a solution. Sometimes, you just need to chat.”
“In Tokyo, I was faced with a decision; do I retire there and then? I had just hours to make a career-changing decision. Phil was on the phone with me, helping me work through my thoughts, and keep to my values, and core beliefs.”
Their most important conversation came during the 2021 Olympic games. Having made the Team GB squad for a fourth time, an aggravated injury meant Ed was faced with deciding whether to retire on the spot, in Tokyo, meaning he would no longer compete.
“My talks with Phil had always been centred on my values. What kind of person did I want to be; when I look back on everything one day, will I be proud of how I acted?
“In Tokyo, I had been struggling with injury. I was faced with a decision; do I retire there and then, and have my teammate step into the race instead, or do I try and ride again? I had just hours to make a career-changing decision. Phil was on the phone with me, helping me work through my thoughts, and keep to my values, and core beliefs.
“Ultimately, I wanted to do what was right for the team. I wanted the rest of the lads to build on all the hard work we had done, and for them to have the best possible chance of making it onto the podium. I knew I wasn’t the best rider at that moment. So, I retired.”
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Tokyo 2021 would mark the end of a career that spanned nearly two decades. Unrivalled in the Team Pursuit, Ed’s retirement signalled the end of an era for British Cycling. For Ed himself, it was the start of a new chapter.
“Life post-sport is a difficult transition,” he says. “Phil was, again, instrumental, in helping me navigate my next steps. He encouraged me to think beyond cycling, to think about broadening my skills and to try new things. But he also helped me to balance that with not consistently living outside of my comfort zone and not getting burned out by doing too much too soon.
“Life post-sport is a difficult transition…Phil was, again, instrumental, in helping me navigate my next steps. He encouraged me to think beyond cycling, to think about broadening my skills and to try new things”.
“Sport is all-consuming, but it is never the only thing someone has going on. There is a lot to be said about having someone not involved in the day-to-day of your training or cycling, having someone who can look more objectively and has perspective of your whole life. It helps you make value-based decisions outside of the intensity of sport.”
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Ed and Phil still work together. Formally, they sometimes do guest talks based on their learnings from elite sports and high-performance principles. Outside of cycling, Ed still sees Phil as a mentor figure and someone to learn from. “I still reach out to Phil when I need help in my life. He is still my go-to.
“Before I met Phil, I believed an ideology that good leadership was about working with everyone – that you could bring everyone along. But I’ve learned that good leadership is not always about having everyone on the side. Sometimes good leadership is about recognising when people are not conducive to the team or the vision.
“As an athlete, you become inherently self-focused – you must be, to some extent, to compete and train and do what you do. Where Phil has helped me is being able to see things from other perspectives and understand team dynamics. That was crucial for me. It is crucial in sports and even more so outside of sports.”
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