Originally Posted by
downtube42
I had a bike fitting earlier this year, at 61, and the first thing the fitter did was test my range of motion. His response was "good thing for cycling". In other words, inside the range of motion of cycling, I'm fluid and beautiful. Outside that range, uh, I show my age.
Moral of the story is, keep on keeping on until you can't.
It ain't illegal in Oregon
Also, you can buy chewables so smoking isn't necessary. Not that I partake currently, being employed by a rather conservative company that does random drug screenings. But retirement is going to be grand.
As far as I can tell, there as only been one finisher over 80 -
Jean Guillot at age 86. I'll be 86 11/12ths in the 2037 running. I'm going for it. This means no more breaking my neck; you probably don't get two of those.
I noticed from various published stats that PBP gets hard at 65 and very hard (lots of DNF) at 70.
I'm taking motivation from an older French rider that I chatted with on the bridge into Brest. He lamented no longer being able to keep up with the fast riders at his old age. He looked 50 to me, so, I asked his age. 71. It was only just over 22 hours into the ride. Old dude was already in Brest!!! He said recovery had become a problem and that he needed more sleep on rides. He invited me to his home to sleep if I needed. It was only a 10 minute chat but something that I'll never forget. IRRC, he had done like 11 PBPs.