'I got to play for Barcelona' - Dan McLay pays compliment to Visma after retirement

Dan McLay spent the majority of his career with Arkéa (formerly Bretagne-Séche Environnement), which he joined in 2015, a team he built a special bond over an eight-year spell broken up by two years at EF. 

McLay joined up with Visma | Lease a Bike for the 2025 campaign before making the decision to hang up his wheels at the end of the season. 

"It would have been nice to finish at home with Arkéa, but at the same time, I got to play for Barcelona for a year, and you can't ever turn that down. It was pretty cool to work with some of the biggest names in cycling," McLay said to Cycling Weekly. In his final season with Visma,  he served as a valuable teammate for Olav Kooij and Matthew Brennan in sprints, and was part of seven winning race days across the campaign. 

The New Zealand-born Briton's professional palmarès includes 10 victories, with his most recent win coming at the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta in 2020. Throughout his career, McLay competed in five Grand Tours, including four appearances at the Tour de France, where he achieved a third-place finish behind compatriot Mark Cavendish on stage 6 of his debut Tour in 2016.

Perhaps his most memorable victory came at the 2016 GP de Denain, where he produced a spectacular sprint coming from deep in the field.

"I remember being out of position and doing a big kick to get through some gaps and then a few doors opened for me," he recalled. "At no point did it ever feel anything crazy. It was only when I saw the video did I see how it looked and it ended up being this iconic sprint."

In a past interview, McLay had previously discussed his victory at the GP Denain. “I’ll watch my victory at GP de Denain whenever someone tags me in it. There is some instinct in going through gaps, but you also need a bit of luck as well. An important thing in a sprint is not getting caught up on numbers. Because of the fatigue, our peak power is typically well below the maximum we’re capable of.”

Reflecting on his career, McLay stated, "I think I'm like most cyclists in that it was a dream to be pro, and then when I got a sniff of it, I started thinking I could do this or that, and hoped that I could win some races." 

"I definitely dreamt of doing more than what I ended up doing, but that's sport – if someone is more talented than you, they'll win more; you've got to make the most of what you've got. But I'm more than happy with what I did, especially because the wins got harder and harder to come by."

McLay, who now lives in Estonia with his partner and young child, hasn't finalised his post-racing plans but intends to stay connected to cycling. "I'm open to anything and have lots of small ideas but nothing concrete as of yet," he said. "I'd love to do something in the sport, but I'm not panicking to dive straight back into it."

The Briton is one of nine riders who have departed Visma | Lease a Bike at the end of 2025, and joins former teammate and sprint leader Arnaud Démare on the list of riders who have hung up their racing wheels recently.