Born in Grantown-on-Spey,^[1] MacLean kicked off his cycling career as second man in the Great Britain Team Sprint until switching to lead man in 2002. He broke the GB kilometre record at the Olympic Trials in 2004.

MacLean's career as a member of the British elite team came to a close in 2008. He suffered from a mystery illness ( later diagnosed as Coeliac disease) for the majority of his career so could no longer perform at the level required. This, coupled with the form of rising stars like Jason Kenny and resurgence of fellow veteran Jamie Staff, meant that he narrowly missed out on the squad for the World Championships and Olympic games.

MacLean declared that the Manchester round of the World Cup Classics in November 2008 was his last ride as a UCI accredited rider. In the World Cup round he competed in the Keirin and Sprint for the Plowman Craven Trade team. He won his Keirin heat but was relegated by the officials. In the sprint he qualified in the top 5 but lost in the first round after a controversial move by his German opponent.^{[citation needed]}

He sat out international competition for two years from 2008 to 2010, the mandatory requirement to become a pilot for para-cycling tandem racing.^[4] At the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, MacLean piloted Neil Fachie to golds in the Tandem B Sprint and Tandem B 1000m Time Trial.^[5][6]

In 2012, he switched to piloting Anthony Kappes, with Barney Storey piloting Fachie; the move was a success for both tandems, as each tandem team won a gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games. In doing so, MacLean became only the second athlete to win medals at both Olympic and Paralympic Games.

While sitting out international competition, he continued to make some racing appearances at the Revolution events in Manchester. He appeared at Revolution 22 in December 2008, competing in the Sprint and Keirin events.

MacLean reunited with Neil Fachie for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where the pairing won gold in the kilo time trial.^[7] They followed this up with another gold in the sprint where they came back from losing their first ride in the final to beat the Australian duo of Kieran Modra and Jason Niblett 2–1.^[8]

In 2007 MacLean had an experimental documentary made about him called Standing Start made by BAFTA winner Adrian McDowall and Finlay Pretsell.^{[citation needed]} The film documents MacLean in his build up to the World Cup team sprint win in 2007. The film has screened worldwide and premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2008 Craig took up the challenge of becoming a Bobsleigh competitor for the BBC programme 'Bobsleigh Challenge', which was broadcast in February 2009. This programme challenged Craig and fellow British sportsmen Jason Gardener, Dean Macey and Dan Luger to qualify for the British Championships in Italy, with only 10 days training. Craig teamed up with Luger as one team, while Macey and Gardener made up the other team. After training the teams had to complete two runs down the course without crashing to qualify. After a number of crashes, when both Craig and Dan were driving, both did qualify. However a number further crashes and injuries sustained by Craig meant that they did not complete two runs in the actual competition and were not classified. Just qualifying for the event with only 10 days training was still a remarkable achievement. The other team of Macey and Gardener went one better and finished 6th overall in the competition, ahead of one of the Great Britain Olympic Development teams.

Craig is featured alongside Chris Hoy in a book by Richard Moore, Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution. This describes how Maclean and Hoy were key figures in the rise of British Track Cycling. The book was published in June 2008 by HarperCollins. (ISBN 9780007265312)

In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.^[9]

• 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics gold post boxes
• City of Edinburgh Racing Club
• Achievements of members of City of Edinburgh Racing Club