Greg Griffiths to be inducted into Sport Albury Wodonga Hall of Fame

It was at a race 47 years ago where he met his now wife, Sue, and it's the reason he's had the opportunity to travel around the world.

Born in Wangaratta, Griffiths was introduced to cycling in 1971 while attending secondary school in Benalla.

A third place finish at the Victorian Schoolboy Cycling Championships sparked his interest in the sport, as he started racing around North East Victoria.

Moving to Melbourne in 1977, Griffiths continued to race in the city until the unthinkable happened in 2001.

"I had a bad crash that finished my cycling career as a competitive rider," he said.

"The World Masters Championships were going to be held in Melbourne and I was training for it at the velodrome in Brunswick.

"I had been behind the motorbike for 80 laps, and on the last lap of the designated time, I was the rider immediately behind the motorbike.

"It blew its rear tyre. I veered sideways and went straight into him and was launched up into the air.

"I landed on my head and compressed my spine.

"I was unconscious and taken to hospital.

"That stopped me from racing."

While it marked the end of the 64-year-old's time on the bike, it's just the start of the story behind how he rose to become an Australian UCI commissaire.

After completing state and national courses, Griffiths was given the opportunity to fast-track his qualifications as a cycling official by attending an international commissaires course in Switzerland.

Passing the road and track cycling course, it became his ticket around the world.

"My motivation was to be a good official and to be fair to riders," he said.

"I had been disgruntled with the quality of officials and I thought I could do a better job. That's what started me.

"Good officials in any sport have to be impartial.

"Respect isn't automatic, you have to earn it and you need to make good decisions.

"Sometimes that's tough if you have to penalise someone who you may know, or if it's at the Olympics and it's an Australian.

"You just have to forget about that.

"I learnt that very early, to just treat everybody as a number on their back.

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"That's part of becoming a good official, blocking out any side influences."

Griffiths was the chief commissaire at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and played a big part in the success of the Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

"The Olympics is the highlight of most people's careers, whether an official or athlete," he said.

"There had been events called the Youth Olympics before, but this was actually run by the IOC.

"There were kids from everywhere and they all had to race standard bikes, and BMX riders had to race on the road as well.

"It was a real novice event and that was very enjoyable."

He considers the 2012 London Olympics to be special for several reasons.

While he was given the opportunity to be the chief commissaire of the mountain bike event, it was also the last race of that kind that he has overseen.

"They changed the regulations after 2012 so that road commissaires couldn't also do mountain bike races," he said.

"I had to choose a specialisation path, so I chose road and track cycling."

After years as an official, Griffiths has not only seen the sport's rules and regulations change, but also different athletes rising through the ranks.

"When you've been around for a while athletes change from year to year," he said.

"Quite often those who I got to know as athletes are now coaches.

"Australia has a lot of coaches in other nations. It's good to see other people doing well in the sport."

Having seen much of the world, France, Spain and Italy are among his favourite destinations to oversee races.

"They're beautiful countries and very passionate cycling nations," he said.

"The races are always well organised."

Passion is something Griffiths has in spades, having volunteered to take on his official roles in the sport.

"We get paid daily per diem," he said.

"I had worked in a bike shop in Melbourne for 35 years and I was very fortunate that I had an employer that let me go away for cycling.

"Working for the same person all of that time really helped because he knew it was my passion."

Griffiths also spent just under 20 years writing a column 'behind the counter' for cycling magazine, Bicycling Australia.

After overcoming a stroke two years ago, Griffiths has since retired and relocated to Rutherglen with Sue.

But he has no plans to step away from life as a commissaire just yet.

"I recovered pretty well," he said.

"I'm looking forward to getting back into things.

"Cycling is still booming in Europe and I've been fortunate to get some roles this year. Hopefully all goes well and I can get there."

Having already been chief commissaire at two Commonwealth Games, he's now got his sights set on Birmingham this year.

When he thinks back to when he was a child, he could never have imagined that cycling would have played such a huge role in his life.

"I'm glad it has done though," he said.

"I met my wife through cycling. I was just a young fella down from the country and I saw a pretty girl sitting in the grandstand. We've both traveled to many places we wouldn't have been to otherwise."

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