Newly elected Cycling Ireland president Ciarán McKenna believes the national track set-up is less than ideal, adding leisure cycling and the racing calendar both need attention.
By Brian Canty
Newly-elected Cycling Ireland president Ciarán McKenna said he has “grave reservations” about the current track set-up in the short to medium term but added it had to be maintained for the good of the sport.
The Dubliner, who defeated former president Denis Toomey at the federation’s annual general meeting in the capital at the weekend, said the track set-up put an enormous strain on resources.
“I have grave reservations (about) it but I can see the logic in supporting it in the short and medium term,” he said.
“We need to keep lobbying and at the moment we are trying to convince our politicians we need a track and that we have a track programme worth funding.
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“We must be seen to have a track programme,” he continued.
“We are stuck with it and if we miss one of these World Cups or other major event it makes it harder for the next time.
“And we might end up in a situation where we can’t go to the Worlds and then can’t go to the Olympics.
“I was over the high performance (national programme) for years before and it’s an area that absolutely just drains funds.
“But when you have a chance of a medal you have to serve your riders.
“At the moment you have to look at the men not performing but the women have all of a sudden jumped up and surprised everyone.
“They’re better placed to get to Rio and I suppose they should be supported. The men could take a step back for a few years and go to the grassroots again.
“The best thing would be to start with 16 year-old guys and build it into a track programme from the ground up.
“Some guys are jumping between track and road and it’s not ideal.”
McKenna said some World Cup track events were so far away it made life even more difficult for an overstretched budget.
“I’d be looking at asking the UCI why are we going there to places like Colombia and New Zealand.
“Why can’t these events be in the stronghold of cycling, in Europe? The way it’s organised by the UCI is something I don’t agree with.
“They’ve organised track World Cups in far off places that makes it hard and expensive for many nations to get to, including ourselves.
“The sports council fund our budget overall so if you don’t do the programme they could stop the funding, which is why we have to go.
“We’re stuck at the moment, but lucky to have the sports council as a part-time sponsor.”
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McKenna also said leisure cycling must get more resources. He noted it was the area that had grown the most in recent years and now had the biggest number of riders.
“The biggest thing that wasn’t addressed at the AGM was the leisure side of the sport,” he said.
“We have 22,000 leisure members in Ireland but there wasn’t a whole lot at the AGM for them.
“So how we can (assist) them and get more people into the sport will be one of my priorities over the next two years.”
McKenna stressed while the various Cycling Ireland commissions do a great job, the importance of having more commissions to run the various disciplines was key.
“They’re difficult to work because it’s hard to get volunteers, so 10 years ago or so there were maybe eight working commissions but now we only have four or five,” he explained.
“It’s important we get the non-working commissions up and running again.
“We need to get people representing those disciplines and give them a little bit of authority to run their side of it.
“The motions at the AGM at the weekend were all about grading and day-to-day things like that.
“There were around 180 in the room and I’d say we heard 160 different opinions on grading. That should never come up at the AGM.”
McKenna’s other concerns include the issue with regard to road closures, with some local authorities and the Garda seeking road closures to hold races on.
“That was the big one this year. I know it was confined to an area but it could have expanded quite easily,” he said in reference to Fingal in north county Dublin.
“These days, the numbers are huge and we need to have our eye on the ball. I rode a race this year and there were 160 A3 riders in it.
“The safety element must go up a notch in clubs. That’s not saying the club were responsible for anything but you have to be proactive.
“We need to move slowly forward, but always forward.
“We must be seen to be addressing these things as they go along as opposed to having a big explosion and then being reactive. We need to keep an eye on the ball the whole time.”
He would also examine the race calendar. It is an area that has come in for criticism down the years, with the early part of the road racing season packed with events but racing harder to find later in the summer.
“It’d be nice to see more races in the end of the year,” he said.
“There’s a stack of races in March when it’s not ideal for racing while in September there’s fewer when the weather is much more favourable so we’ll be looking at that closely.”
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