Gary McIlroy has been making big strides as an international UCI commissaire in recent years and this week he has landed his biggest gig yet; the UCI World Cyclocross Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“It’ll be the biggest event I've had so far so, yeah, I'm excited,” he told stickybottle as he waited for his US-bound flight from Dublin Airport.
“It's a different level completely compared to what we are used to here in Ireland,” he said, adding the fact the races were for world titles and broadcast live all over the world made it more intense.
“But I know a lot of the American organisers because I worked with them at the World Road Championships in Richmond a few years back and I know what to expect this weekend. The Americans are a great crew and it should be a really good show.
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"The weather conditions are dry and cold for the week. So it should be a fast course and it shouldn’t be muddy. It looks like it will be a good one for those riders who specialise more in the road racing end of things although some of the obstacles the organisers have laid out will certainly bring some balance."
McIlroy (36) from Shannon in Co Clare, but now living in Dublin, is a well known figure on the domestic racing scene and is already in his 18th year as a commissaire in Ireland; one of the high value stalwarts that keep racing on the road in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Back in 2013 he did the UCI course required for commissaires who want to work on international pro road races and followed up by doing the international cyclocross course, which he qualified from just last year.
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This week in the US it is American Dorothy Abbott who will take on the role of head commissaire, with McIlroy part of a panel of four working under her. He explained there had been some last minute changes to the panel due to Covid-19 but when he got a late call up last week he was ready to go.
Having recently changed jobs – from air traffic controller to his new role as an aviation safety regulator with the Irish Aviation Authority – McIlroy said his employers had been very supportive. That management backing, and the fact he no longer works shifts, had enabled him to take up the international jobs when they arose.
“These opportunities don't come around too often so when they do, you just have to grab them and take the opportunity to represent Ireland behind the scenes also,” he said.
This weekend it will be lead commissaire Abbott who will decide where McIlroy and his colleagues will work. That could involve watching over the pits, working as part of the judging team or pulling riders out of the race each lap after they have fallen too far behind the race leaders.
He will likely rotate between several assignments as the different races unfold, as well as carrying out course inspections and completing all of the administration required for such major races.
McIlroy has already worked on the Tour of Slovakia and Tour of Demark in the last couple of seasons and in the year ahead he says his programme is “pretty packed”, with plenty of international road races to travel to.
He will be commissaire at Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré and GP Oetingen, both in Belgium in March, before doing the the Rutland Classic in April in the UK. He will then preside over the Sibiu Cycling Tour in Romania in July, as well as a whole series of one day races in Europe through the season.
