Wangaratta cycling great Dean Woods lauded by 1984 Olympic colleagues at funeral

It was an attitude that helped win a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics and that he used in tackling two bouts of cancer.

Sadly the second outbreak, initially in his lungs and then liver, took his life on March 3.

Faced with an insurmountable battle, Woods opted to end treatment but ensured he took control of detailing his funeral, held on Tuesday in his hometown of Wangaratta.

Its centrepiece was Woods giving his own eulogy, filmed weeks before his death.

Not even wife Megan and daughters Paris, Kennedy and Devon had seen the recording before Woods delivered it on a big screen above the stage of the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre.

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He spoke of being in the "box in front of you" and his comfort in letting the cancer run after deciding the "upswing wasn't compensating for the downswing" when it came to treatment.

"For me it was the best thing, I'm at peace with it, I'm at ease with it, I still haven't lost a night's sleep and never will, even though I have no choice now," Woods said.

The 55 year-old spent the bulk of the hour-long eulogy outlining his life, from being born on a rainy Wednesday morning, to his shift to the Gold Coast.

It went from the very personal, his frustration at only learning he had an older sister in the last 10 months, through to his track triumphs as he went from an apprentice plumber to Olympic champion in two years.

"We had the best that we could get, but we certainly didn't have the best that was available, anyway history shows we beat the Yanks," Woods said of the Australian 4000-metre pursuit team's bikes they used to defeat the high-tech US squad in 1984.

The OAM recipient outlined life as a professional rider, drugs in cycling, the death of his mother, bike parts retailing and shift north before signing off by saying "I'm Dean Woods and that was my story".

The address was punctuated by references to an autobiography that Woods has researched and hoped to see published this year.

Mrs Woods later joked in her speech that it was quite a eulogy and "also very much a shameless promotion of a book".

Her speech was based on a letter that Woods had left in a bedside table and had a tribute to Wangaratta stalwart Patti Bulluss who helped raise money for him and fellow local cyclist Glenn Clarke to travel to the 1984 Games.

"Dean has never forgotten what you did for him and he categorically says he would not have been able to go to the Los Angeles Olympics and achieve the ultimate had it not been for you and the town of Wangaratta," Mrs Woods said.

"For that he loves you Patti and is eternally grateful to the town."

Wangaratta mayor Dean Rees, a close friend of Woods, hosted the funeral.

"I've lost my mate and I stand here today broken-hearted," Cr Rees said.

"A heart that is broken is a heart that has been loved by him and I unashamedly say I loved him and I will miss him all of my life."

Tributes from yachting great John Bertrand and world surfing champion Layne Beachley and her husband, musician Kirk Pengilly, were read out by Cr Rees.

A shoulder injury forced cycling coach Charlie Walsh to miss the funeral but his so-called Angels were there to honour the team-mate who they won gold with at the 1984 Olympics.

Michael Turtur, Michael Grenda and Kevin Nichols came from around Australia to join Wangaratta's Glenn Clarke, who also was part of that Games cycling team.

Team manager Ray Godkin wore his 1984 Olympic blazer and read a letter from Walsh who is recovering from a shoulder operation.

"It was his quality attitude of endeavour and respect which secured my trust in him as a person and a top cyclist," Walsh wrote.

He added Woods had never used performance-enhancing drugs, which cost him success, and Godkin told how Woods came to him at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and said he had been offered illegal stimulants.

Turtur talked on behalf of his team that won gold in the 1984 teams pursuit with Woods just 18 at the time.

"I spoke to him a couple of weeks before he passed away and he was upbeat and showed so much courage and was just incredible," Turtur said.

"As a bike rider on a bad day he was good; he had courage, determination that carried us all through and the banter that we displayed between our group in the hard work that we were doing to have a laugh and call each other names and be sarcastic was part of the process of getting through."

Woods was buried in a private ritual at Wangaratta cemetery after the funeral.

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