FORTY years on from his one and only Olympic experience, Kevin Bradshaw is still extremely proud of his efforts in Moscow.
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The south west Victorian cyclist represented the region and his country in the team time trial and the road race at the 1980 Summer Games.
"It's a great honour and at the time I was just really focused on the event and you don't realise how big it is until you have time to think about representing Australia and all that stuff," he said.
"I still find it difficult to believe that I actually made the Olympic team. It's so long ago now since I was a little kid from a little country town that thought he could make the Olympics.
"But having said that the only bloke to win a medal is Clyde Sefton, who is from Purrembete and is still a member of Camperdown Cycling Club, he planted the seed for young blokes at the time."
Bradshaw, now 63, who still lives in Camperdown, finished 11th in the team event and did not finish the road race but he has no regrets about how the Games played out for him.
"I was so focused on the event and definitely had tunnel vision but I still performed to the best of my ability and had good preparation," he said.
"There was only one fella that finished the road race for Australia and that was Michael Wilson (who finished 25th) from Tassie and when I congratulated him he said he was the only one to finish it and that's what he had been there to do.
"That was a mindset of his and he was a really good bike racer but mine was different, I was over there to have a good go at it and with a bit of luck try to get a medal.
"But you have only got so much petrol and when that runs out you stop basically and I didn't conserve my energy."
Remo Sansonetti and Graham Seers were the other two Australians not to finish the 189-kilometre race.
Soviet Union cyclist Sergei Sukhoruchenkov claimed the gold medal in four hours, 28 minutes and 28.9 seconds.
Bradshaw was joined by Sansonetti, Wilson and David Scarfe in the team time trial.
The time trial was eventually won by the Soviet Union team of Yury Kashirin, Oleg Logvin, Sergey Shelpakov and Anatoly Yarkin.
That is just one of achievements in Bradshaw's cycling career, which saw him ride across the country and also in Europe following the Olympics.
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He also won two stages in the Herald Sun Tour in 1982 and finished four Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classics.
He finished third in the 1982 edition which was claimed by three-time winner David Allan from scratch in six hours, 32 minutes and 31 seconds.
"Naturally I was pretty happy with finishing on the podium and the main aim was to win but I was happy with third," Bradshaw said.
"I'm definitely proud (of the achievement) as it is the second oldest bike race in the world and has been going for 100 years.
"It's something that Warrnambool can be really proud of and I hope it keeps going."
The self-employed painter, who has owned and run Bradshaw Painting and Decorating for 39 years, still gets out on the bike.
"I still go out a couple times a week or at least try to anyway," he said.
"There is a group that go out on Saturdays and sometimes I'm by myself as I don't know when they will go and I can go when it works for me.
"It might be if I knock off work early or sometimes I take my bike to work and ride home.
"I often go once on the weekend whether that is at 7am with a group or at 4am I head off by myself and I'm only gone for a couple of hours."
The father-of-seven isn't often joined by children Grace, William, Molly, Charlie, Ruby, Henry or Sidney on his rides but he enjoys when they do. He also loves watching his kids chase their dreams.
"We (he and wife Julie) are like every Aussie and we're just a normal Aussie family that want their kids to play sport or do what they want to do," he said.
"I did try to introduce them to the bike but they didn't take to it and I thought 'why bother flogging a dead horse' but the main thing was that they enjoy the sport they chose.
"Will usually has a ride but he hasn't been home for years. Sometimes Charlie comes and Sidney occasionally does.
"If they have a choice to go for run or a ride they usually go for a run and that's fine but it is good when they do come with me, specially with the rail trails that we have opposed to the road, which is a hell of lot safer and offers a nice relaxing pace.
"Sid and I did go on the Timboon Rail Trial a couple of months ago but if I am by myself I mainly ride on the road still."
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Bradshaw is still an avid fan of cycling and enjoys spending time watching professional cyclist including fellow Camperdown export Grace Brown.
"I always will be and it's normally any thing that is going," he said.
"Naturally the tour (Tour de France) and the Tour of Italy (Giro d'Italia) is on at the moment. I watch as much as I can.
"It is so different to when I was a kid growing up because all the news was in a magazine that came out a month or two after the race had been run and won but everything has changed now."
Bradshaw admitted he was still learning while watching the world's best on television.
"I have learnt a lot from the commentators and listening to how they explain why things are happening during the race," he said.
"Most of stuff I knew but there is still a lot more things they have taught me.
"(Former champion Australian sprinter) Robbie McEwen has been in there (on SBS' coverage) with Matthew Keenan and they are very insightful.
"Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen were the voices of cycling. Thanks to SBS because the sport would be nothing without them after they brought the first Tour de France coverage 30 years ago and brought it to our homes.
"They have really good commentators and all Aussies who have been over there, ridden it and have been around bikes.
"The commentators educate people who haven't had anything to do with the sport or someone who has been on bikes their whole life."