USA Cycling has named Brendan Quirk as its new CEO, replacing Rob DeMartini, who abruptly resigned this week.

"His decision to step down came as a surprise to everyone," Quirk told Cycling News on Friday. 'The board decided the best course of action was to make me an offer. I had a close relationship with the organization and was actively involved, so it seemed like a really smooth and easy transition."

Quirk just succeeded Bob Stapleton as board president in October after serving as vice president.

Unlike DeMartini, who came to the federation from New Balance and intended to bring a fresh perspective to USA Cycling, Quirk is an industry insider: the 50-year-old has been a racer for decades, co-founded Competitive Cyclist, and is a member of the board of directors of the organization.

He was executive vice president of Backcountry.com, which acquired Competitive Cyclist, and later served as Rapha's North American president. A native of Bentonville, Arkansas, he has been involved in the development of the cycling industry and cycling tourism in the Northwest.

During his time as CEO of DeMartini, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, canceling races across the country and derailing plans to increase membership. He was also forced to make drastic budget cuts, which affected the High Performance Program, which is responsible for building the Olympic team; rebuilding for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be one of Quirk's key tasks.

"We are fully committed to sports performance," Quirk told Cycling News, acknowledging the impact budget cuts have had on USA Cycling's performance at the Tokyo Games.

"We are the only cycling federation in the world that does not receive significant government funding. Team GB gets a lot of money from the government every year, and as far as I know they haven't lost a penny because of Kovid. We cannot afford that, and with all the unknowns surrounding Covid, Rob was forced to make significant budget cuts in order to survive until the next day. As a result, every part of the organization was affected, including sports performance."

With uncertainty over whether Tokyo and other races would take place, and even whether the team would be able to travel, staff were temporarily laid off, and both Quirk and DeMartini admitted they could not resume operations fast enough.

"With the fog of war hanging over us, we were too slow to reinvest in the sports performance program," Quirk said. 'It's not something you can put money into today and see the impact tomorrow. It takes a long time to see the effects. Jim Miller, his staff, and the players on Team USA suffered for it.

"It wasn't a lack of effort or talent, it was the skeleton of the staff and other issues that put us on the back foot for Tokyo."

Reflecting on Tokyo, Quirk said USA Cycling realized the need to "invest heavily in our sports performance program to get back on our feet in Paris and do even better in Los Angeles in 2028." [Fortunately,] we have a really strong foundation of belief in Team USA, and we have really great support from the USOPC, and we are grateful for that support. I think we can bounce back very quickly. The investment that Jim Miller is attracting, the talent, the coaching staff in all disciplines, and the athletes that are coming through the system, I think we are in a great position for Paris. "

DeMartini's resignation came after an anti-transgender "Protect Women's Sports" group demonstrated at the Cyclocross National Championships in Illinois last weekend and shouted abuse at transgender athletes in competition, but officials did not stop them. This was the result of a backlash from the transgender community and allies.

In April, DeMartini mishandled the backlash against an anti-transgender bill passed in Arkansas, which will host the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in January, saying the boycott was "ceremonial."

When asked about the incident with Save Women's Sport, Quirk, like a CEO, itemized USA Cycling's diversity efforts at length.

"We realized that we don't have the proper policies in place to deal with protests and demonstrations at our events, and the lack of policies at USA Cycling is something we will be working on. I feel we are moving in the right direction, and for me as CEO, diversity will be an important part of our strategy."

USA Cycling held an industry-wide inclusion conference, helped build a program with EF to fund cycling programs at historically black and tribal colleges and universities, and implemented the Let's Ride program to get disadvantaged youth on bikes ... [But this week, Ayesha McGowan of Rib Racing announced that she has stepped down from USA Cycling's DEI committee.

Asked about McGowan's comments, Quirk disagreed with her assessment and said she felt USA Cycling and the cycling industry had "made great progress."

"Anyone who expects to do well in the first year of a focused effort is asking for the impossible. It took a lot of community coordination and broad involvement to make it work. Obviously, we will never get it perfect, but that is not going to deter us. These efforts will continue next year."

DeMartini's main goal was to reverse the decline in USA Cycling's membership and give non-racers a reason to sign up. However, Quirk sees ample opportunity in the explosion of interest in cycling that accompanies COVID-19.

"It's a great moment to be involved in cycling, as the activity is growing. We look forward to finding ways to become more relevant," Quirk said.

"While racing has been on the decline, the increase in cycling in general is incredible. We need to provide a better experience for our current members and more attractive value associated with USAC to riders, club managers, and event organizers. This is a big priority and we really care about our existing members.

"We also need to be more relevant to the ever more dynamic cycling event environment. We must serve this new generation of cyclists.

"We have an attractive ride membership that will roll out in 2022. It is much less expensive than any race membership. We have partnered with a company called Spot to make sure riders get supplemental insurance whenever they are on their bikes."

Without national health insurance, even Americans with private health insurance pay higher premiums and have higher deductibles (out-of-pocket costs for treatment until the insurance pays).

"Most people have high deductible health insurance, so a broken collarbone can cost $8,000 if the deductible is not met. This [spot] policy covers a gap of $0 to $25,000.

"It's a big step forward to be able to offer tangible value to people who don't race but ride bikes. It's just the first step in a more constructed reason for people to become members."