JACK Carlin is the accidental cyclist. As a youngster mucking around on the playing fields of Paisley, this sports-daft kid fractured both ankles, an injury which left him with an awkward, ungainly running motion. Little did anyone suspect back then, though, that this was in fact this young man’s lucky break.
From those tentative first steps on the static bike in rehab came the seeds of a new sporting love, cycling. Despite a further minor setback when he broke his wrist as he tried racing on a proper track for the first time, this week sees the 20-year-old travel to Berlin as a fully-paid up part of the illustrious British Cycling Programme, a key cog in the wheel of the GB European Track Championships team. All going well, he will continue to follow in the slipstream of the likes of Chris Hoy, Craig MacLean and his current team-mate Callum Skinner by rubber stamping his emergence as the latest in a long line of Scottish sprint cycling heroes.
“I learned how to ride a bike when I was really small but the first time I actually rode a bike of any significance was in rehab,” Carlin told Herald Sport. “I had always loved riding a bike, but cycling as a sport was just something I got into because of injury. I got bad injuries from messing around playing football and stuff. I broke my ankles and I couldn’t run properly.
“So I got into it to keep my fitness up and I just kind of fell in love with the sport after that,” he added. “My mum encouraged me to go to my local club Glasgow Riders. While it was people my age group, all the people above me, all the volunteer coaches, were always encouraging me to do better. That is why I think clubs around the UK are so important to cycling development.”
As ever, in the world of British cycling, who competes for what in this event will remain a closely guarded secret until well night the final second. All Carlin has been told is that he will be competing – most likely in his cherished role as lead-out man – in the team sprint. That is the event where he, Ryan Owens and Joe Truman surprised themselves as much as the rest of the world by claiming silver medals in last year’s event in France. The surprise came, you see, because this was very much meant to be Britain’s B team, behind Olympic gold medal heroes Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner.
While Carlin, Owens and Truman suffered the disappointment of coming up short in the team sprint event on his maiden exposure to the World Championships in Hong Kong in April, it is anyone’s guess now precisely what the final make up this week’s three-man team will be. Just to complicate matters further, on his last visit to Germany, just a few weeks ago for the Dudenhofen Grand Prix event, Carlin beat all-comers, most notably the other members of the British team, to claim the individual sprint honours.
“It was such a surprise how well we did in the winter block last year,” said Carlin. “Last year’s Euros was one of those – you are always wanting to go better, and of course you are looking for the gold. But we had gone in expecting to get our asses whooped, and to come away with anything was a bonus. We were a bit disappointed standing on the podium but looking back now it was a great experience and we learned a lot from it.
“ Joe, Ryan and I all came on the programme at the same time, we all progressed through the ranks at the same pace and it is exciting and surprising how quickly we have come on over the last year,” he added. “The coaching staff are so important, they are constantly pushing us to get the best of ourselves.
“I am looking forward to going out to Germany see how that last couple of months of hard training has come into its own and seeing how we perform as a team. First they decide the team which is going, then they whittle it down to who is doing what event when we get there. But I roughly know what I am doing. I will be doing the team sprint event again - we have got the World Cups coming up in Manchester so there are plenty of opportunities for us all to perform at individual events as well. It will be roughly the same team, although Callum Skinner and Philip Hindes are in the mix now. So it will only be confirmed fully when we arrive there, see where we are all going, and how we are coping with the new track.”
The ultimate destination for Carlin’s journey, of course, is the Tokyo Olympics of 2020, where he hopes to be the latest British cyclist standing on a podium with a gold medal hanging around his neck. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few intriguing stop-offs along the way.
Not least of these is next April’s Commonwealth Games at the Anna Meares Velodrome in the Gold Coast, where both he and Skinner - a reigning Olympic champion in the team sprint and silver medallist in the individual sprint - will go toe-to-toe with their Manchester-based pals from England and Wales, not to mention hosts Australia. With an expert lead-out man, and an Olympic pedigree finisher, it will be particularly intriguing to see it Scotland can find a third member of that team sprint grouping capable of making us competitive.
“ I train with Callum every day pretty much, we are in the same programme now, and good friends,” said Carlin. “So it is exciting for me to see what the Commies will bring. Nothing is confirmed yet, but hopefully we can bring a strong team sprint to the games. And hopefully individually as well we can be in contention for some good results.
“There’s a few guys out there who could be in the mix for that other place, it is just whether or not there is enough time for them to get up to speed,” he added. “But right now, it is all to play for. England are going to have a very strong team, and especially Australia, with it being their home games. But if we can get ourselves together we can go in with confidence too. We are very good friends on and off the bike, but there are bragging rights at stake.”
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