David Gillick, the former top 400m runner who won two indoor European titles, is planning to take on the Irish road racing scene and join the A4 ranks when the season starts.
Dubliner Gillick (38) has ridden some cyclocross races in recent months and lined out at the National Cyclocross Championships in Armagh the weekend before last to conclude his winter season.
However, his recent outings were far from an experiment as he used them to gain experience for his future plans on the road and in cyclocross next winter.
Gillick told stickybottle he has taken out an A4 licence and plans to compete in that category before hopefully moving up the ranks on the road racing scene, in the colours of Scott Quanta Racing.
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And while his initial plans involve one-day races, he said he was very curious about stage racing. He believed the multi-day nature of the competition was very similar to much of his athletics career and was keen to give it a go.
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"I'd love to do stage races," he said. "I think the challenge of doing the race day, rest and then getting to do it again the next day; that's what I did as an athlete - qualifying, semis, finals. Hopefully there will be loads of opportunities."
Gillick represented Ireland at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and was European indoor champion over 400m in both 2005 and 2007. He claimed his first medal at a major championships in 2004 when he was part of Ireland's 4X400 metre relay line-up at the World Indoor Championships that won bronze.
He is a former national champion over 200m and 400m. His time of 45.52 in 2009 remains the Irish indoor record 13 years on. His outdoor personal best of 44.77, run in both 2007 and 2010, remains the Irish outdoor record.
We'll have a full interview with Gillick shortly.
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