PREVIEW: Olympic champ Maclean back for more!

As if the Stockport v Edinburgh encounter hadn’t already got the makings of an exciting fixture, you can now throw in the presence of a multi-Olympic and Commonwealth Champion to the mix!

Craig Maclean MBE makes his seasonal debut for the Falcons at St Thomas recreation ground against the already crowned Northern League Champions Stockport. The exiled Scot, a long term friend of Falcons racer Neil Swanson will line up with his old Scotia BMX teammate for the second after Craig made his Cycle Speedway debut in October 2014 at Hull.

Maclean (44) has been filling his time with street velodrome racing in 2015 and competes for the Velotec team in Asda sponsored series. Craig helped the team finish 4th in the overall standings with 2 golds and 1 silver in the series which will be broadcast on BT Sport shortly. These exciting bursts into street velodrome and Cycle Speedway come on the back of a very successful Track career which seen Craig collect 2 Olympic medals, 9 World Championship medals including a gold in 2002 as well as 4 Commonwealth medals with 2 gold as recently as 2014 in Glasgow.

Craig lines up with the Falcons needing a win to secure second spot in the league table behind the 6 in a row winners Stockport. The home side have been superb in 2015 as they mostly have been since 2010, however they did suffer a rare heavy loss at Redbraes earlier in the season. Missing from the visitors line up back in May will be the injured Craig Newsome & Jake Slight whilst the home side will be able to call on Jake Reed who had been injured the previous day. The enforced absences will no doubt make the champions favourites however all eyes will be on Maclean to see how did adapts to the short shale track for only the second time in a move which can only be good for the profile of Cycle Speedway.