When were you at your best?

[Uawadall]

To those more experienced riders on the forum, a few questions:

At what age range were you at your fastest on the bike?

At what age range was your endurance at its greatest?

At what age range were you at your most skilled?

At what age range were you most willing to take risk on the bike (example, going downhill at 50mph,etc...)?

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Fastest around 25 to 35.

Best endurance around 30, I would guess.

Most skilled? I'm still learning, but I was well honed by 30.

Risks? I still bomb off hills at 50. That's not all that risky. Jumping into a crit on a suckwad course with a bunch of squids and it's raining? That's risky business. I always tried to manage the risks I took, as best I could. I'm going to say I took the most risks on a bike around the same age I was at my fastest...25 to 35.

 

[Belovedad]

I'm still pretty young so I believe my best years are ahead of me. Having said that, I need to start getting myself in good shape so I can actually see improvement.

 

[Froze]

Of course I was a lot better when I was involved in racing back between 25 and 35, now I suck...thank god I'm not racing in my age bracket now because I can hear them laughing at me!!

 

[cyclintom]

You normally hit your fastest about 8 or 10 years after you've started riding.

You have to train for endurance so that can be at any age but around 40 is normally good.

Skill increases every year as you can always screw something else up and learn from it. I just had a major crash from having more than two fingers on the disk brakes on an offroad downhill.

I avoid risks. But because every time you ride you learn a little more you go faster without risking more.

 

[Corzhens]

This is not all about biking but more on my physical condition in general. I am not athletic although I used to ride race horses for practice runs when I was in grade school. I can say that my physical strength was at its peak at age 25 to 30. During those years, I never remember being out of breath unless I challenged myself to exhaust my strength. Doing physical activities at that age bracket seems like ordinary whether it is going up 5 flights of stairs. Now I still climb 5 flights but on a slow motion mode. And with riding, I make it a point not to race for it is not advisable at my age.

 

[cyclintom]

The Tour de France has been won by a 36 year old man. And Hincapie was a major racer until 40 or so.

 

[Froze]

The Tour de France has been won by a 36 ye wiar old man. And Hincapie was a major racer until 40 or so.

yup, but that those type of pro racers are extremely dedicated riders, that is their job too, they get paid to do that, and when they train like that a person could push it till 40 tops, but usually after 35 you play a support role your not the captain.

The average rider, or even one who races up to and including cat3 as I had done in my early years, you don't get paid, you have to pay for all your bikes, parts, gear, kit, motels, food, gas, registration fees, a coach unless you do what my team did the coach was one of the riders and hence we didn't have to pay for his services, but we would buy him parts, tires, pay for his reg, fees, sometimes if we had the money we paid for his motel room. In addition to all of that you pay in time, time away from your family which was the number one reason why I quit, the number two reason was the cost, combine that with a family I wasn't about to sacrifice stuff they needed so I could go play wannabe bike racer. When I say time spent away from family I mean a lot of time away from family, I wasn't a billionaire, just an average person who needed a full time job, so I worked full time with overtime, combined that with 2 to 3 hours a day of training, than be gone on weekends on top of that!

Now lets look at the shocking expenses of amateur racing, i can't recall for sure any more but I believe my expenses were around $3,000 a year which in today's dollars that would be roughly $7,500. So there is a lot of expenses in racing that doesn't even get you to the pro ranks! if I had to do it all over again with what I know today, I would have never gone into racing! Yes I had fun, I'll give you that, but the cost of not spending time with the family just wasn't worth it, and I could had fun with the family on weekends instead.

 

[cyclintom]

I am presently 71 and am still hauling ass. I may not be as fast on the climbs since my heart rate can't get high enough anymore, but I can stay with anyone on the downhills and last year I did 5 miles at 28 mph at the end of a century.. And I can still give the fastest guys in my group a quarter mile lead on a hard climb and close them down before the top. One of those climbers can stay with any Cat 3.

A week ago I did an endo on an off-road downhill and have been healing since. I took a ride yesterday and will be taking a good ride with 1600 feet of climbing today.

One of the guys I ride with is 83 years old and he didn't slow up until two years ago.

 

[Froze]

When I left California where I could cycle into the mountains every day, and cycle 11 months out of the year to Indiana where it is flat and can only cycle 6 months out of the year my abilities have suffered. I do have an indoor trainer but I hate that damn thing because it's so freaking boring. There is a indoor cycling club but they only do the sessions when I have to be at work, so that won't be of any use till I retire which I'm trying to speed up that retirement process but conditions aren't quite right yet.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

I am presently 71 and am still hauling ass.

I'm 63. I raced with two 68-year olds last Friday (40K road race, gently rolling) and both were fast. One was very fit and had no problem towing a pack that included a far less fit 58-year old.

It's good to hear you are still killing it and drilling it, Tom. Guys like you and those two 68-year olds give me hope for the future.

The less fit (great legs, kind of a gut on him though) 68-year old got on my wheel while I was chasing down the fit 68-year old that had just ridden the pack off his wheel like Lance used to drop Jan Ulrich. He came around me and spun up his 100MM carbons on a slight downgrade so fast I didn't even see the gap exploding. It took every Watt I could make to reel him back. As soon as I got on his wheel he sat up...damnit!

I complimented both of the older guys on their abilities. I was impressed.

 

[SkerleeWerg]

I only cycled a little bit, but I got physically injured and was trapped in a chain of injuries all the way from 21 to 25. Still recovering from my horrifying posture adventure that came with the injuries, but recovering I am. I was definitely my best at 21, which bugs me

 

[OursIsTheFury]

I think when you are in your prime (25), you would be the most healthy, as long as you have been living a healthy lifestyle beforehand, obviously. I think the endurance, stamina, and even the energy it takes to do a full run gets chipped off little by little as you get older, and you would need additional encouragement and inspiration if you want to continue this lifestyle. Being a kid, full of energy, they would love to ride bikes all day long. But for adults, adding to responsibilities and work, they might not find enough time, or not enough energy, to do so.