MALCOLM Kamp is gone from sight but he will never leave the memories of those he loved and who will love him forever.

Two weeks ago, Mr Kamp, 52, was killed when the bike he was riding and a truck collided on the Warrego Hwy.

Since then, his wife Merrilyn, sons Josh and Andrew, parents Don and Del and twin sisters Rosalie and Rosemarie have faced a cruel reality.

At his funeral on Tuesday, Mrs Kamp told the congregation: “Words cannot describe the loss we all feel.”

Before the couple met, Mr Kamp was a champion cyclist, winning a swag of gold and silver medals in 1974 and 1975.

In 1974, he was the inaugural winner of Queensland Cyclist of the Year.

“He had just given up when I met him but he was exceptionally good in his younger days,” Mrs Kamp said yesterday.

“Down south was always the premier place for cycling and when he came along he basically engineered a time when Queensland could be a force to be reckoned with.”

But at 18 he had to make the choice to race at the highest amateur level or become serious about earning a living.

Financial reality won out and he took up an apprenticeship.

The couple, who had met at the original Cloudland, went out for a few years before they were married.

“Malcolm being Malcolm, he wanted everything sorted out before we got married,” Mrs Kamp said. “We applied for a housing loan and when that came through he proposed. He asked me to marry him in the GPO in Brisbane.

“He was involved with a lot of things and as long as it had speed he was pretty happy.

“He started side-car racing with his brother-in-law and they became state champions. He was in the side-car. Absolutely just loved it. That went for a couple of years and my brother pulled out.

“Then we had family and he started in business. Then we got our own house and he got into go-karts with his two sons. They pulled out and he kept racing.

“He crashed and hurt his back severely so that went on hold. Then we started doing step exercising and he built up his fitness so he decided to get back into cycling.”

Sunday, June 5, started as any given Sunday in the Kamp’s Karalee home.

Mrs Kamp, who had just taken up the role of acting deputy principal at Karalee State School, was in the middle of report cards.

“He usually went for a ride quite early but this particular day was pretty cloudy and yuck so he didn’t go,” she said. “We had breakfast and then mid-morning he said: ‘It’s not going to rain; I’ll go for a ride.’ We were going over to his parents’ about 1pm and he said he’d be about an hour and a half. About 12.30 I had this prickly feeling but then I thought: No, he’s probably just enjoying the ride and he’s gone further.

“About 1pm I thought: This isn’t right. So I started ringing his phone. He didn’t ring back.”

She drove out looking for him but couldn’t find him so she went back home. The police heard his phone ringing and traced it back.

“When I heard them coming I thought it was him so I went to the door thinking: Thank goodness you’re home and, yeah, that’s when it was. Even though he loved speed he was always very careful. It really wasn’t an issue but it was always in the back of your head. But you just expected him to come back home again.”

She said her co-workers and Malcolm’s friends – called “the lads” because they all rode together as teenagers – were very supportive.

“They have just been absolutely fantastic, checking up every couple of days to make sure I’m okay,” she said. “A lot of people don’t understand this but he was killed on the Sunday and I was back at work on the Wednesday because I thought it would be easier to cope and the staff have been tremendous.”

“Words cannot describe the loss we all feel.”