A leader by example

I thought I was pretty good clocking up a second 500km+ week's training for the year along with Phil Moret in what was one of the wettest Sydney weeks for years. Five of the six day's rides were wet, the soaking, sodden, sopping saturating kind of wet - damn wet.

But there's a guy who managed to clock up 635km in this wet. During this week, he dedicated one of those mornings to train and instruct an up-and-coming TDC cyclist. He headed out that day at 4.15am to squeeze in "the overs".

On his last ride for the week, he told me he was going to sit back in the pack and take it easy. And fair enough too. And he did ... for about 15 mins before he took the lead, and regularly lead the pack during a bone-drenching 215km ride. He stopped to repair other riders' punctures, he was with camera in hand, riding ahead, stopping to take shots of the team, and then riding back to the pack, offering subtle advice to riders on riding technique and bunch riding etiquette... and the list could go on and on.

A huge effort Geoff Cougar Coombes - inspirational stuff made all the more remarkable in what were very bleak weather conditions for cycling.