PARIS — You might think that after a lifetime of racing, Ed Clancy would have happily hung his bike up on the wall and driven off into the sunset, leaving two-wheeled life behind him after three decades of service.

There is indeed a bike hanging from the wall of his West Yorkshire home on the edge of the Peak District – one even has a version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream painted on it – and the 39-year-old three-time Olympic champion has lost none of his passion for the sport.

The clip-in shoe is on the other foot now though, with Clancy working on the latest iteration of Great Britain’s state-of-the-art cycling kit.

“It’ll be an interesting experience watching the Olympics in Paris,” Clancy tells i.

“I’ve been involved quite heavily with their research and innovation (R&I) team, working with developing the skin suits and the bikes.

“Of course there is a part of my soul that says ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be ace to get on the start line, back with the boys and see if we can do the business again?’.

“I guess that’s the reality of getting old: illness, injury, talented youthful riders come along.

“I’m excited about being out there. I can’t wait to catch up with the boys, particularly ahead of the race. It’s always a privilege to be involved in Team GB in some capacity.”

Clancy is an appropriate advisor for the R&I team having been part of Great Britain’s surge to the top of the cycling, beginning in 2008 and peaking at the home Games in 2012.

But, in the words of British Cycling’s performance director Stephen Park, medals are getting harder to come by.

“When I rocked up, we had quite a big head start on the world with this whole marginal gains programme,” Clancy adds.

“We did have a good crop of riders: Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Vicky Pendleton, household names that were all in the building at the same point of time, and then the best skin suits, bikes in the world.

“We had marginal gains secret squirrel club headed up by Chris Boardman and we turned up at Beijing and got pretty close to winning everything.

“But these marginal gains become more and more marginal. You see it in motor sport, in Formula One. You see it with Red Bull now, for example. They can reinvent a car, and for whatever reason they will have got it right, the simulations will be right, and after 18 months, two years or so…. it’s much easier to copy than be innovative.

“Once it’s out there for everyone to see at the Olympics, then it’s just a question of time for people to catch up. We’re working hard all the time to be inquisitive and see what innovations we can make within the rules and regulations.”

Clancy’s focus has been on the track team, but the cycling cohort’s campaign will start out in the elements on the road. Josh Tarling might well be the first Team GB medalist of Paris 2024 on Saturday, which would make him the first Brit to win a medal on the opening day of a Games for 20 years.

Tarling was only a few months old when Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor won that 10m synchro diving silver in Athens, but no one believes his tender years will hold the world bronze medalist back in the time trial, which finishes at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening.

“Josh Tarling, man alive,” says Clancy.

“For many years people talked about his engine and his potential in British Cycling. It’s almost like people never really wanted to jinx it. But I think everything that people hoped he’d become has happened.

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“He is winning huge races at such a young age. He’s a nice lad, he works well within the team.”

Elite time trialist to Tour de France glory is a well-trodden path, by the likes of Wiggins and Thomas. Tarling too, one day?

“I’m of the opinion that someone as talented as him, with an engine like he has, could look at team pursuit in the future, if he wants to get a reasonable haul of medals on the track, or the stuff that we saw Geraint and Bradley do – which nobody really saw early in their career. They transitioned to be GC (general classification) riders on the road. I think he’s very, very talented.

“When you consider how young he is and how competent he is at time-trialling, British Cycling has someone who is potentially going to get medals in the Olympics for the next four, five cycles should he want to do such a thing.”

Tarling is not alone in a British bike squad filled with burgeoning reputations, where the number of debutants is into double figures.

That makes the experience of Clancy, attending a Games as an onlooker for the first time in his life, particularly valuable. He made his Olympic debut 16 years ago in Beijing.

“It’s such an interesting time in your life, looking back,” Clancy adds.

“Myself and Geraint Thomas were like a little package because we came through the academy together when we were sort of 16, 17, 18 years old.

“In the grand scheme of things, we were doing well but we were never in elite standards. We were nowhere near the level Josh Tarling is, really.

“But by the time Geraint was 22, I was 23, and we were stood on top of the Olympic podium. We had realised our Olympic dream.

“People want to know what it feels like. It felt amazing. It felt like everything you’d expect it to feel like when you’re 23. You’re almost as excited about the afterparty as you are about the race itself!”

Clancy now gets his buzz in different ways. He commutes either 22 miles to Sheffield (“over a massive hill,” he points out with childlike glee) or a similar distance to Manchester. And only a few weeks ago, he held a “residency” at Club Med’s resort in Alpe d’Huez, taking a group of amateurs up a series of iconic hills, including the famous 21-hairpin Tour de France climb.

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“The best thing about being retired from professional sport now is that you can just ride your bikes like a massive kid. You can travel around and explore: fun, freedom, exploration,” Clancy says.

“My relationship with cycling now is as good as it has ever been. I’ll get the bike out the garage and ride down the towpath, the sun might be out for a change and it’s fun. It’s stress free, there’s nobody on your back, there’s no sport scientists, there’s no power crank, there’s no heartrate monitors.

“Do you ever get the same thrill that you once got standing on top of the Olympic podium? No, of course not and you’ll never get that back.

“But when you’re tearing down a big Alpine descent with a load of pals after hauling yourself to the top, that’s about as good as it gets.”

Talk of Olympic medals still brings out the twinkle in Clancy’s eye though, one young imagine he will be summoning on demand in team meetings and pre-race confabs over the Games.

“I don’t care what people do, how much money they make, what recreational drugs they take the weekend: I don’t think there’s anything that could make you feel as good as standing on top of the podium at the Olympics with your best mates having done the business.”

And Clancy would know, he did it three times.