Come January, Derek Bouchard-Hall's time as the CEO and President of USA Cycling will be at an end. The American's three-and-a-half-year tenure has run alongside declining interest and participation in racing, a harsh financial climate, and a nation of fans still dealing with the sport's turbulent doping past. As part of Cyclingnews' Tour of Colorado, we sat down with Bouchard-Hall to talk about his time in charge, the challenges ahead, and whether he leaves USA Cycling in better health.
Derek Bouchard-Hall loves to talk about cycling. It doesn't matter what time of day - weekday or weekend - the former US criterium champion, and soon-to-be ex-CEO of USA Cycling, lives and breathes the sport.
Even on a dreary autumn afternoon in downtown Colorado Springs the former Mercury and Shaklee rider appears in good spirits as he takes us round the halls at USA Cycling. It's late in the day, winter is coming and most of the staff have filtered away for the evening. Those who are still here quietly shuffle along, going about their business in the grey and slightly dim surroundings - think Walking Dead meets The Office, and you wouldn't be a million miles away. But Bouchard-Hall is no Michael Scott - zombie version or not - and, as we reach his office on the second floor and cast a gaze across the shelves of memorabilia, it's once again clear just what cycling means to the 48-year-old father of two.
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Yet, in just a matter of weeks, Bouchard-Hall's office will be cleared, family photos taken down and put in storage, as a new individual takes the hot seat. For now, at least, as he leans back in a chair that sits behind a coffee table of well-read cycling magazines, Bouchard-Hall can look back at his three-year tenure with a sense of satisfaction, even if it is tinged with regret over the fact he is moving on earlier than he would have originally liked.
When Bouchard-Hall took the position of CEO in summer of 2015 it's fair to say that USA Cycling was in a state of flux. Actually, that would be slightly unfair. It was in disarray. It had come through the damning USADA investigation of 2012 with its reputation severely tested, while the cycling community as a whole was still feeling the aftershocks of Lance Armstrong's eventual confession by the time Bouchard-Hall was unveiled as part of a new dawn. The fact that Steve Johnson, Bouchard-Hall's predecessor, came out of the USADA report with his credibility sorely scorched, yet was still in power until Bouchard-Hall's arrival, only intensified the post-Armstrong hangover.
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