Dean Woods

Dean Anthony Woods OAM (22 June 1966 – 3 March 2022) was an Australian racing cyclist from Wangaratta in Victoria known for his track cycling at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Woods, with teammates Michael Grenda, Kevin Nichols and Michael Turtur, won the 4000m team pursuit.

Critics did not give them much chance.

The team was coached by Charlie Walsh and dubbed "Charlie's Angels".

In the final the Australians defeated the United States by 3.86 seconds, even though the Australians were riding conventional bikes while the Americans had high-tech machines.

On Australia Day 1985 he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for service to cycling.

He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

At the 1986 Commonwealth Games he won the individual pursuit event.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Wayne McCarney, Stephen McGlede, Scott McGrory, Brett Dutton and Woods won the bronze medal for the team pursuit, defeated by the USSR (gold) and German Democratic Republic (silver).

In the individual pursuit Woods won the silver medal.

At the 1990 Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, Woods set the record of 5h 12m or 50.9 km/h for this 265 km race.

Woods established and worked at a bicycle shop, Dean Woods Direct, in Wangaratta but later sold it.

He died from cancer on 3 March 2022, at the age of 55.

Sources:

Woods won a bronze medal in the team pursuit at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Woods told The Border Mail in 2004, "Expectations weren't high for us from the press, but we thought we would do pretty well. We had a close team."

In the 4000m individual pursuit Woods was beaten for bronze by Leonard Nitz (US).