By Frederick Halley
FORMER Guyana national cycling sprint champion Aubrey Bryce is on a mission to change lives and according to him, it’s incredibly satisfying being able to see and inspire individuals and witness their excellence in sport.Bryce retired from an executive position at General Electric, Canada, terminating a successful corporate career in pursuit of his passion to inspire and motivate clients to new levels beyond their

current expectations.
“I travel the world with my clients, I arrange and conduct cycling, triathlon, marathon and fitness lifestyle training holidays everywhere.”
Bryce has been coaching in the Sports and Fitness Industry for 24 years. He is the proud owner of Enduro Training Systems, a comprehensive coaching services enterprise, that serves the needs of Toronto’s sports and lifestyle fitness communities. He is also owner/operator of Le Cycletique, an Indoor cycling training facility in Toronto.
“Aubrey was my conduit for providing opportunity for overall growth. I marvel at his compassion and unending ability to give of himself in a number of ways,” said Donna Pounder, World Ironman Championship finisher in Hawaii,
“His leadership and ability to see the bigger picture are his strengths that I continue to learn from.”
Another of Bryce’s athletes, when questioned about Aubrey’s contribution to her development, attested that “anything was possible….but its only because he made me believe it to be so. He believed in me. That has been his greatest gift to me, to my life and to my future. Aubrey changes lives. He has certainly changed mine.”
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Bryce disclosed that from his perspective, these are the things that are especially important to him.

“It is so much more delightful in seeing how individuals make their entire lives that much better because of the values which they derive and which they can see more clearly as a direct result of training for and participating in sport.”
Bryce pointed out that cycling was indeed the basis for his development as a lifestyle fitness coach.
He said the qualities he now possesses are “takeaways” from being a cyclist but “what I do now in my life’s work is somewhat removed from the actual world of cycling.
Cycling is only a very small microcosm of what I do. As a matter of fact, I have a really big problem when folks would refer to me as ‘Bryce, the bike rider’.
“I refuse to let my life be defined by cycling because I have done and continue to do so many more important things in my life.”
Bryce, however, admitted that he loved cycling during his youthful days. “I loved every moment of it, the training, the challenge, the victories and the recognition were all very nice. Growing up in the small village of Meadow Bank, I did not have the privilege of individual or organizational coaching, great equipment or a known pedigree of ‘genetic’ sports success. What I had was a dream, a great love of cycling and people who loved me dearly.”
Purpose, support and opportunity were the three pillars of resolve, which together formed the foundation of his ultimate endeavor, he disclosed.
“I figured that ultimately, success was entirely up to me. With the amount of time and effort of training required and a relative lack of resources, I knew it was going to be hard but I had this inherent feeling that the “hard” could only be good.

“Training came easily because I loved riding my bike. Most of the time, I trained twice per day. My support came from understanding parents and a loving family. From them I found understanding, encouragement, motivation and generosity, cheers when I won and empathy when I did not do as well.
“When I wanted to dedicate my efforts to training so that I could do well enough to qualify for and earn a spot on our nation’s team to the Olympic Games, they allowed me to take a year off school at an understandably critical time in my academic development. It indicated that they had the confidence in me to not only make good on my promise to not squander the opportunity to ride a bike but more importantly that I would uphold my side of the bargain to return to school after the cycling music stopped playing for me.”
Bryce said he took some serious lessons from cycling. “The most beneficial ones were from the hard parts, the real struggles of an ordinary guy, from an ordinary place with ordinary upbringing and uphill challenges. These attributes are oftentimes overlooked because more often than not, they diminish the allure and romance of the game.”
Bryce disclosed that from cycling he learned leadership and compassion. “I learned dedication and perseverance, I learned courage and application, I learned understanding and resilience, I learned motivation and inspiration. I also learnt that talent, like genetics, is overrated. I believe that every success we achieve is primarily circumstantial.
But circumstance needs to be packaged just right. “Purpose, opportunity and support are a lot more meaningful when carefully buttressed with solid personal values. What makes it even better is that these tenants, when used effectively, seem to transcend sport itself and seem to naturally morph into all aspects of an individual’s entire life. When one becomes successful at sport, they can access a similar blueprint for anything else that ails them in life. It was only a matter of time before I finally figured it out and the wealth started to roll in – my kind of wealth.
“Just consider the following:
“My children are not necessarily blessed with some magical power to solve rubric’s cube in 10 seconds but have developed into solid, contributing human beings – that’s my kind of currency”
“A client’s mother privately requested that I promise to bring her medically challenged daughter back from a gruelling event in the desert, unharmed. She painfully pleaded: ‘I don’t want to loose another daughter.’ At a jubilant finish line ceremony, her mother sought me out and whispered quietly into my ear, ‘you da man.’ That’s my currency.
“While cycling up the 27Km climb to the top of Monte Grappa in the Italian Dolomites, one of my clients told me of his lifelong struggles with his body weight and thanked me for my contribution to his weight loss and improved fitness that allowed him to enjoy a longstanding ambition to ride the Dolomites with his wife and friends. That’s my currency
“On a recent ride, a client talked about the last time he struggled to complete a ride such as the one we were doing. He was 25 at the time. He had no intention of ever riding a bike again. That is, until he met me. Two weeks ago he turned 60. On this day he felt better that he did 35 years ago. That’s my currency.”
Bryce, who now resides in Bowmanville, Ontario has been married for 44 years and has two grown children who both enjoy successful careers. Morty, 42, lives in Toronto and daughter Samantha, now 40, lives in Washington, DC. He also has a grandson, Ethan.