Originally Posted by jlippinbike

While it is true as a general rule that athletes live significantly longer than the general population, athletes can be categorized into subgroups and these subgroups do not always live significantly longer than the general population. The link Carbonfiberboy provided in his post herein above regarding meta-analysis of 68 studies statistically determined that ENDURANCE athletes were no better off than the general population with regard to cancer mortality. Endurance athletes are athletes. So one would think they are doing something to cause a longer life. Having said this, then one quite possibly could think that endurance athletes are doing something to cause a shorter life, too. Because cancer pops up in endurance athletes as if they were not athletes at all. At least this is the conclusion per the study cited by Carbonfiberboy.

I think Carbonfiberboy's study supports my determination that when endurance athletes fail to get proper recovery from doing excessive long bike rides they RISK creating an unhealthy amount of oxidative stress which can ultimately lead to cancer mortality. Just because there is a risk does not mean one will get cancer. But there seems to be evidence that the risk is real and quantifiable.