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105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

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Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#101

Post by gkya »

roystonvassey wrote: post #100

Outliers (or, are they?) like this guy make me question my beliefs about nutrition and fitness. Two days back, my uncle (who is pushing 93) was telling my mom that he's NOW finding it a tad difficult to do his daily cycle rides of 10 kms. All his life he's smoked a cigar everyday, had a couple of glasses of Scotch and basically eaten whatever he's wished. And here I am, struggling with early metabolic syndrome despit…

Where's your uncle? Our elderly relatives in countryside always outlive us the city-dwellers. I live in a very lucky part of my city where I'm both between two sizable forests and close to all means of commute, thus I breathe in the best air of the city. Most city-dwellers world-wide though, breathe in shit air. There's no London fog anymore, yes, but instead millions of cars, and tens of millions of people together. I think that plays an important role, to have good air around.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#102

Post by emptybits »

For those inspired by "old cyclists", I encourage you to look at the sport of randonneuring.

TL;DR: randonneurs ride in timed, regulated road-coarse events that start at 200 km and work up to a traditional distance of 1200 km (and beyond). It's endurance cycling and ... the kicker ... it's full of "old" people (because they seem to have the wisdom and gumption to ride smart and long). In my local club, there are definitely young riders in their 20s and 30s but the most prolific riders are over 50 and the top two are gentlemen in their 70s. "Top" as measured by most events ridden in a year and most event mileage in a year. Their average speeds put young riders to shame more often than not.

Slow and steady wins the race, for values of "race" greater than 200 km. ;-) There are local clubs all over the USA, Canada, Europe, and everywhere.

Anyways, not everyone knows about the sport of randonneuring so I just wanted to share in the context of inspiration, no-age-limits cycling -- it dates back to the 1890s and I personally think its community and values are better than regular competitive road or mountain biking, having done all of the above. Ride safe.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#103

Post by mikekchar »

nl wrote: post #97
mikekchar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being afraid is natural, but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities. Just look up the statistics for cycling injuries/deaths in your city. You are very, very unlikely to suffer a major injury. Having said that, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, you want to be predictable. That generally means following all the traffic rules. When riding in stop and go traffic, keep…

but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities. I love cycling (I cycle a lot), but unfortunately this isn't true. In the US, you are roughly twice as likely to die as in a car[1]. It is much, much, much safer than motorcycling! (Somewhat old data, though) [1] http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/166/2/212.full

Double a really small number is still a really small number. From that link, I get 9.2 fatalities per 100 million person trips for a car, 13.7 fatalities per 100 million person trips for walking and 21.0 fatalities per 100 million person trips for cycling.

If you ride your bike 3 times a day, every day for 70 years, you have about a 1.6% chance of dying. This is not unduly dangerous.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#104

Post by andygates »

roystonvassey wrote: post #100

Outliers (or, are they?) like this guy make me question my beliefs about nutrition and fitness. Two days back, my uncle (who is pushing 93) was telling my mom that he's NOW finding it a tad difficult to do his daily cycle rides of 10 kms. All his life he's smoked a cigar everyday, had a couple of glasses of Scotch and basically eaten whatever he's wished. And here I am, struggling with early metabolic syndrome despit…

Cycling takes a long time, so it burns a lot of calories. It's no coincidence that a common club ride destination will be a nice cake shop and that half the riders will be skinny older guys.

Get on a bike, son! :)

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#105

Post by andygates »

mikekchar wrote: post #90
ajmurmann wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest issue is lack of physical barriers between bicyclists and cars. I'm too afraid to take a bike because of it. I already don't trust other drivers when in a car. I also dislike it when riding a car because you frequently get weird issues around turn lanes etc that are shared with bikes that behave completely differently from cars.

Being afraid is natural, but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities. Just look up the statistics for cycling injuries/deaths in your city. You are very, very unlikely to suffer a major injury. Having said that, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, you want to be predictable. That generally means following all the traffic rules. When riding in stop and go traffic, keep…

That's all very good advice. The biggest fear is fear itself.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#106

Post by roystonvassey »

andygates wrote: post #104
roystonvassey wrote: post #100

Outliers (or, are they?) like this guy make me question my beliefs about nutrition and fitness. Two days back, my uncle (who is pushing 93) was telling my mom that he's NOW finding it a tad difficult to do his daily cycle rides of 10 kms. All his life he's smoked a cigar everyday, had a couple of glasses of Scotch and basically eaten whatever he's wished. And here I am, struggling with early metabolic syndrome despit…

Cycling takes a long time, so it burns a lot of calories. It's no coincidence that a common club ride destination will be a nice cake shop and that half the riders will be skinny older guys. Get on a bike, son! :)

I do have one and I enjoy my daily commutes on it :)

But, given the negligible effect it's had on my health, I want to refine my original comment to make it clear that I don't imply causation between cycling and burning calories. Clearly, I need to make additional changes.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#107

Post by roystonvassey »

gkya wrote: post #101
roystonvassey wrote: post #100

Outliers (or, are they?) like this guy make me question my beliefs about nutrition and fitness. Two days back, my uncle (who is pushing 93) was telling my mom that he's NOW finding it a tad difficult to do his daily cycle rides of 10 kms. All his life he's smoked a cigar everyday, had a couple of glasses of Scotch and basically eaten whatever he's wished. And here I am, struggling with early metabolic syndrome despit…

Where's your uncle? Our elderly relatives in countryside always outlive us the city-dwellers. I live in a very lucky part of my city where I'm both between two sizable forests and close to all means of commute, thus I breathe in the best air of the city. Most city-dwellers world-wide though, breathe in shit air. There's no London fog anymore, yes, but instead millions of cars, and tens of millions of people together.…

He lives in a fairly traffic-dense urban locality. He did spend a large amount (~10-15 years) of his life living in the hills when he was in the civil services.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#108

Post by bazzargh »

emptybits wrote: post #102

For those inspired by "old cyclists", I encourage you to look at the sport of randonneuring. TL;DR: randonneurs ride in timed, regulated road-coarse events that start at 200 km and work up to a traditional distance of 1200 km (and beyond). It's endurance cycling and ... the kicker ... it's full of "old" people (because they seem to have the wisdom and gumption to ride smart and long). In my local club, there are defi…

I heard about the Ardechoise cycling festival off the back of Robert Marchand's previous record - it's his club, they named a hill after him, etc - and got inspired to travel there and enter one of their Randonneur routes a couple of years ago. The festival has many different routes you can choose from, which overlap, and all of which are marked by the same yellow arrows on the road - which leads to fun times if you miss a turn. Mine was this one: http://www.ardechoise.com/Carte-interactive/Les-Gorges-Monta... ... 608km, but over 4 days.

As it turned out, I arrived at the top of the final hill before Saint-Félicien at the same time as a small peloton of riders and journalists surrounding an old man on an electric bike...it was Robert himself. Hope I can still be doing this at his age.

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#109

Post by Xylakant »

mikekchar wrote: post #103
nl wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities. I love cycling (I cycle a lot), but unfortunately this isn't true. In the US, you are roughly twice as likely to die as in a car[1]. It is much, much, much safer than motorcycling! (Somewhat old data, though) [1] http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/166/2/212.full

Double a really small number is still a really small number. From that link, I get 9.2 fatalities per 100 million person trips for a car, 13.7 fatalities per 100 million person trips for walking and 21.0 fatalities per 100 million person trips for cycling. If you ride your bike 3 times a day, every day for 70 years, you have about a 1.6% chance of dying. This is not unduly dangerous.

Comparing fatalities based on distance traveled obscures the real risks, especially if you do that country-wide: Highways and other long-distances roads are a comparatively safe environment for cars. Accidents are comparatively rare, but often fatal. City traffic differs: speed is in general lower (Injuries for cyclists thus are far more likely. Even collisions at lower speed that basically leave a car dented and the occupants uninjured will result in injuries for cyclists: The classic dooring accident, run over by a turning car, etc. Even overtaking the cyclist with too little safety distance can lead to a fatal accident [1]

The stats in Berlin (2015) indicate that while cyclists are involved in about 4% of all accidents, they make up 21% of persons killed (pedestrians are even worse off: 1.33% involvement, but roughly 40% of all persons killed). They also make up more than 30% of all injured (30% of major injuries). Pedestrians make up for 13% of the injuries (24% of major injuries). So the group of soft targets that is involved in roughly 5% of accidents suffers 60% of all fatalities, 54% of nmajor injuries and 43% of all injuries.[2]

[1] see incident 10 on this list http://adfc-berlin.de/radverkehr/sicherheit/aktionen/62-geis... (sorry, german only) [2] data taken from https://www.berlin.de/polizei/aufgaben/verkehrssicherheit/ve... (sorry, german only)

Re: 105-Year-Old Cyclist Rides 14 Miles in an Hour En Route to a World Record

#110

Post by Scarblac »

user837387 wrote: post #17
ploggingdev wrote: post #5

Mind blown. His diet that consists mainly of fruits and vegetables along with his lean body are likely major factors that contribute to his youth like health at 105.

We do not really know why. It's like trying to figure out why somebody won the lotto. Statistically speaking, somebody will. Same with longevity, statistically speaking, a few will make it pass 100. Edit: I found this about Jeanne Louise Calment from Arles, France who lived to 122: >>An interesting side question is how Jeanne Louise Calment managed to achieve such an advanced age? She smoked until the age of 117 and…

I think that a really bad diet can make life shorter, but other than that longevity seems to be largely a matter of good genes.
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