Thrilled to see an article describing my eldest son’s contribution to professional women’s cycling sport.
https://cyclingtips.com/2017/02/meet-jono-coulter-the-man-who-joined-the-team-game-because-the-women-deserved-better/
Of course I know it is true and objective. I have followed his journey and if I wanted to be biased I would add more which is also true. But I had to reflect on my own perspective and impact on all this. I was especially struck by the line that “my parents had land” for him to train riding at our place. It sounds like we were real rich with a huge expanse for a bike circuit. And maybe in his eyes as a junior maybe that was how he saw it. In reality
, in suburban Brisbane, our whole street was half acre blocks, with a single residence leaving space for play. Our progression of homes in Canberra, Darwin and Brisbane was a story of increased room for the kids’ development and we always had enough room to kick the footy as they grew from toddlers to teenagers.
Jono sure used our yard as a race circuit. I was supposed to be doing my PhD write up and his mum would have been playing tennis. Jono 8 and Lee 6 were doing circuits, racing, like it was viewed by millions. I was the only one peeking and I snuck out and changed the closest corner marker. After a couple of laps I made it more difficult and I saw his eyes flicker reckoning what’s up. Couple more laps with increasingly impossible corner and put down the bike and discovered dad’s prank. Had to laugh. He was learning the mysteries of being pranked.
On another occasion as dark fell I found the two chromemoly bikes out against a fence and likely to be highly prized by others. I put them in the shed than nonchalantly mentioned he had better put the bikes away. He came in like ghoststruck and I had to burst out laughing and tell him it was okay.
So “the land” his parents had, just a good back yard, did grow to be major circuits of world cycling. Very pleased for him and the people he works with.
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