Oldest cyclist

[2wheelsgood]

How old is the oldest cyclist you know, and how much cycling do they do?

I'm just, you know, interested...

 

[User482]

Not someone I know, but there was an interview with a 99 year-old in a recent Sustrans magazine. Respect!

 

[rich p]

I think MacB is 84 but Noodley may just pip him.

 

[Hilldodger]

My friend Albert is 91 and stil rides every week come rain or shine. Has done for going on 80 years

 

[bobg]

My old friend is 85 and still riding, he falls off occasionally but always manages to get back on!!

 

[palinurus]

There are usually a few riders in their mid seventies who enter my club's open time trials. No idea how much cycling they do though. I expect there are plenty older riders time-trialling.

 

[dellzeqq]

the SWLondon DA has two in their 90s. We did have Ron Beams, but he departed to the great bike shop in the sky a little before his 100th birthday.


we also have Ray Dare, who did 100 miles in just under 5 hours. Aged 81. Mind you this year's effort (I think he's 83 now) wasn't so good. 5 hrs 15. He blamed the hilly course. What kind of excuse is that?

 

[ufkacbln]

I had the honour of meeting Ron a few times, and I believe the "Midweek Wanderers" had several 80 year olds and a couple of 90 year olds on their regular outings

 

[wafflycat]

In my neck of the woods, there's quite a few in their 80s still cycling (& doing time trials..)

 

[Noodley]

I think MacB is 84 but Noodley may just pip him.

I have never 'pipped' MacB

 

[Gromit]

Late 70's, not really polite to ask her, her real age. She is also still volunteering at BTCV in York and doing bloody well on it.

 

[ComedyPilot]

I'm 42, but I think Dayvo is older...?

 

[661-Pete]

Blimey! And there I am wondering if I'll be around, let alone cycling, when I reach sixty (next spring). Wasn't there a story about a 108-year-old woman (in Austria I think it was) who got knocked off her bike - and escaped with a few bumps and scratches?

 

[XmisterIS]

I plan to keep on cycling and climbing and swimming for as long as I can.

I get the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) magazine and a few years ago they did a survey of the bone densities of active older people (70-year-old climbers) vs. those who haven't exercised for years.

They found that those who haven't exercised for years had muscle wastage, plus a dramatic decrease in bone density and a significant succeptibility to brittle bones, arthritis, etc.

Conversely, the rock-climbing 70-year-olds had the same bone and muscle density and flexibility as 30-year-olds.

There's a guy who climbs at my local climbing wall who is 72, we nickname him "the limpet" because he can hang on, and on, and on, and on, and on ... and he's more than twice my age!

 

[dellzeqq]

I had the honour of meeting Ron a few times, and I believe the "Midweek Wanderers" had several 80 year olds and a couple of 90 year olds on their regular outings

Wayfarers..

I attended a meeting once at which, quite out of the blue, one of the attendees said that she thought that if we were invaded she'd look to the Midweek Wayfarers to lead the resistance - because they knew every farm gate in southern England.

To which I replied that she was right - some of them even had Home Guard experience.

The Wednesday turnout is about seventy strong. And the average age is close on seventy. When you think about it - that's a lot of experience on the road at the same time.

I'm in the Cheam and Morden. We call the Midweek Wayfarers 'the old farts'. And I'm sometimes the youngest rider on a C+M ride!