Daniel McLay

Daniel 'Dan' McLay (born 3 January 1992) is a British racing cyclist, competing in road, track and cyclo-cross. His first season as a professional was 2015, racing for French pro-continental and 2014 Tour de France wildcard outfit Bretagne–Séché Environnement. Primarily a sprinter, McLay is also competent in the Flemish racing scene and has a particular affinity to the Northern Classics. He was named in the start list for the 2016 Tour de France.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, McLay moved to the UK as an infant and was brought up in Leicester. McLay began cycling competitively at the age of six. Following his success as under 16 rider at the British National Track Championships, he represented Great Britain at the 2007 European Youth Olympic Festival, competing in the criterium and road race events. He saysthat he was not very good at sports that require coordination as a school-boy and thus this fuelled his desire to continue competing in cycling.

McLay was selected to represent Britain at the Junior European Cyclo-cross Championships in 2008, where he finished last.

In 2009, McLay became a member of British Cycling's Olympic Academy. McLay went on to win the bronze medal in the Madison at the UEC European Track Championships with partner Sam Harrison. He also represented Great Britain at the 2009 Junior UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.

In 2010 he became World Champion in the Junior World Madison Track Championships, with Simon Yates.

In 2014 he won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir (French for "The Tour of the Future"). He also came seventh in Tour of Britain stages, a strong showing given that sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Mark Renshaw and Adam Blythe were also competing, although he said that seventh was not a representation of what he could have achieved.

Turning professional

He signed for the Bretagne–Séché Environnement professional continental team for the 2015 season. He won his first professional victory in Stage 3 of the 2015 La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. In the first UCI World Tour race of his career, the 2015 Paris–Nice, McLay came eighth in stage 5.

His second profesional win came the following season at the 1.HC ranked Grand Prix de Denain, weaving his way from distance through the centre of the bunch to win it on the line. His second win came a month later in the Grand Prix de la Somme, beating Nacer Bouhanni into 2nd place. Due to those two wins, McLay was selected to take part in his first Tour de France, and finished in the Top 10 in his first sprint finish. After another two top 10 finishes, McLay finished on the podium on Stage 6 behind Cavendish and Kittel.

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2016
Giro	—
Tour	170
Vuelta	—

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress