IT is perhaps apposite that Craig MacLean forgets fleetingly about his earliest experience of the Commonwealth Games, given just how abject Team Scotland were in Kuala Lumpur 15 years ago.

Their total of 12 podium places remains this nation's lowest tally since Kingston in 1966. Indeed, no less a competitor than Chris Hoy has subsequently suggested the team travelled to Malaysia with the attitude that "we're going to get humped but at least we've got the clothing."

MacLean smiles as his recollections return; the generous supply of branded kit, the full fridge of free ice creams in the village, and the unsuccessful efforts of the cyclists to impress the women's hockey team. They were, in his own words, "in holiday mode". Consequently, his memories of the actual competition are less cherished, the Grantown-on-Spey rider finishing fifth in both the kilo and the sprint.

"We were there as tourists to make up the numbers," he concedes. "Now, we go to Commonwealth Games to win medals, whereas in Kuala Lumpur doing that would have been a fluke because someone else had fallen off."

If the admission jars with the current perception of British track cycling, it is because of the efforts of such as MacLean and Hoy. Firm friends since long before 1998, the two were at the vanguard of the development of the sport even if the former's contribution has slipped somewhat from the wider consciousness as a consequence of the remarkable successes achieved by his younger compatriot. Still, the bond between them remains intertwined with Scotland's recent Games history; the duo were elected by the rest of the squad as their choice to carry the flag in Manchester in 2002, with Hoy standing down to allow MacLean his moment in the spotlight. "He was very gracious and said I could do it but he got a wee shot at it a few years later . . ."

Only one of the two will be competing in Glasgow next summer, though. MacLean bridles when it is suggested that perhaps only some of the bowlers can match the span of his Games experience but the 42-year-old has had to acknowledge the advancing of the years in recent times. After missing out on the Beijing Olympics, he effectively ended his solo career but remained under the auspices of British Cycling by becoming a pilot for paracycling tandem racing, winning Olympic sprint gold in London as a guide for partially-sighted Anthony Kappes.

In that final, the pair defeated Team GB colleagues Neil Fachie and Barney Storey and it is with Aberdonian Fachie that MacLean will team up in an attempt to emulate his victory in Glasgow. The pair will enter the kilo and the sprint and recorded the qualifying standard easily while winning gold in each event at the Newport International Paracycling Cup last weekend. Not that either man was particularly pleased with their performance. "It's given us a big enough kick up the backside to know that we've got a lot of work to do," says MacLean. "We thought we'd come on a bit since the Paralympics but I suppose Neil and I have only been back on the tandem for a couple of weeks.

"It's difficult to motivate yourself because the event didn't really count for anything. Essentially, it's held at a place we use as a holding camp and we were watched by a handful of family and friends, whereas for most of these guys the last time they competed was London; that's a pretty big come down."

Might the duo suffer the same problem in Glasgow? As it stands, a lack of pilots among the other Commonwealth nations is threatening to make the Games something of a skoosh for the Olympians, with even the English struggling to identity a suitable partnership. Indeed, such is the gravity of the situation, MacLean is actively attempting to recruit some of his contemporaries so that he and Fachie have some sort of challenge. "I almost feel obliged to make a bit more of it and actively encourage some competition," he says.

While the narrative around the Newport event focused on the lack of legacy for paracycling, MacLean believes his involvement has perhaps already attracted other former elite sprinters to become pilots, pointing to the likes of Stefan Nimke of Germany and Dutchman Teun Mulder as former rivals of his who have chosen to prolong their careers by making the switch. Their presence helps give the discipline more credibility but the situation still mirrors the early part of the Scot's career, when he struggled for recognition for his efforts.

"Being part of the parasquad is quite like it was back then," he says. "It doesn't seem to get the same priority as the able-bodied squad, as controversial as that may be to say, but certain things get the focus and that's the way it is."

His hope is that the landscape might shift before the 2014 Paralympics, but whether MacLean will be there remains to be seen. Several times, he uses the word "unlikely" in relation to continuing until Rio but eventually concedes that, should he "still feel competitive" and should he get a "second wind" then he would consider competing for one last time.

Before then, though, he will have an opportunity to win his second Commonwealth gold medal and to do so in his home country. Team sprint victory against England in the 2006 Games in Melbourne is something he will forever cherish - "It just felt like it was a long time coming and to do it by such a small margin, to rub in it even more, was great" - but having the chance to reprise that feeling in Glasgow would surely be just as special?

"I'm not going to get caught up in the moment and start reciting Braveheart or anything like that because I'll be there to do a job for Neil," he insists. "But I've never competed in a venue where the majority of the crowd are Scottish and, just thinking about, that could be quite emotional . . ."