February 1998. It had been a great week for the South African National Cycling Team in Malaysia. The Green and Gold was prominent in the peloton, upsetting the apple cart by leading the team competition ahead of the might professional Mapei outfit. Many of the "Euros" had turned their noses up at the South Africans. Who were these part-timers and how are they leading the team competition, they wondered? Let's put them in their place and combine resources to preserve our pride, they decided. But that was in the past now, and on a mountain known as the Genting Highlands, Andrew McLean was in relentless overdrive.
"The Tour de Langawi was always a great objective for us South Africans," Andrew explains. "We would spend the whole of November, December and January training hard to be in top form. It was our only chance to be competitive against the European riders who were coming out of their winter."
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Andrew McLean is a master strategist. And he has to be. Founding Cycle Lab doesn't just happen overnight after all. But he is also a realist, as was the case in a previous life. Rewind some 25 years and Andrew in the midst of a professional cycling career, hellbent on making a name for himself in deepest, darkest Europe.
"It certainly was an eye opener," Andrew says of his time in Belgium. "But while I was determined to make it as pro rider back then, it was difficult to get any decent results."
It was in 1992 that Andrew and the rest of the Topsport-VW Fox team headed to the Lowland country for an extended racing schedule. Up until that point, Andrew had been annual visitor to the flatlands of Flanders, but more for training and bit of racing than any serious campaign.
"My first trip to Belgium was in 1990," he says. "Belgium made sense in terms of finance and language. The rand was still fairly strong at that stage and one could sort of understand Flemish, what with its similarity to Afrikaans. South Africans still weren't allowed to officially race in 1990 and 1991, but we got around the rules by racing kermesse under a specific Belgian federation. Lourens Smith and Grant Lottering were my travel companions that first year, and we had a good time there. It was the off-season in South Africa, so the kermesse racing was a great way to stay in shape over the Southern Hemisphere winter.
"By the time we went over as Topsport-Fox, I was a lot more serious and intent on making it over there. But the Belgian racing didn't really suit my strengths as a climber and time triallist. We weren't very competitive and, to be honest, really battled to make any impact on the racing over there that year."
By 1993, the South African pro scene was on the decline. With Southern Sun-MNET in its swansong year and Andrew joining forces with Theuns Mulder and Belgian rider Kurt Verleden, that year's Rapport Toer is best remembered for the German onslaught. It was also the year that Andrew joined Belgian professional team Willy Naessens. But as he explains, it was this experience that saw him reach a career-defining crossroads.
"Willy Naessens was effectively a specialist kermesse team," he says. "While we did compete in some stage races, I was constantly on the backfoot, and rarely ever competitive. But I was fortunate that I had options; I had a flat and a girlfriend back in South Africa and could be competitive there. We still had races like the Giro del Capo and Rapport Toer, races which suited my abilities. I might have had a better shot at becoming an overseas-based pro if I moved to France or Italy but that would have meant learning a new language and starting all over. So I pretty much made up my mind in 1993 that I wasn't going to make it in Europe and returned to South Africa."
Some good years followed. Reuniting with former Southern Sun-MNET teammate Willie Engelbrecht on the new Peaceforce Securities team of 1994 ("There wasn't any animosity between us, just mutual respect."), Andrew continued to be the leading light on the hills and in the time trials in South Africa, with the odd foray overseas such as Commonwealth Games and Tour de Langkawi. He formed Cycle Lab during an extended illness layoff, originally as a indoor cycling facility out of his garage. But his modesty is clearly evident when asked about his great results against visiting overseas riders in races like the old Boland Bank Tour.
"I could do well against the top European riders when they visited South Africa at the end of their season. Or at races when they were coming out of their winter with just six weeks training in their legs. Andrea Tafi would ride an extra 100km after each stage at the Tour de Langkawi."
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As the finish line got closer, the gradient got steeper. The Genting Highlands is classified as an Out-of-Category climb and, at 23km, is the deciding factor of Malaysia's national tour. And in his final outing for the national team, Andrew was giving it the proverbial berries. Over the speed bump and through to the finish line, the rider known as "Mighty Mouse" left it all out there. Third on the stage and fourth overall, Andrew's performance at the Tour de Langkawi brought the curtain down on an impressive career.
*Header image courtesy of Shawn Benjamin and Ark Images.
