Originally Posted by
robbyville
Congrats to me I'm the oldest starter for road racing on this thread so far.
Got into cycling at 17 by going via an organized one month bike tour (camping) of New England. Rode a lot afterwards, worked in bike shops, etc. Raced a few mountain bike races in the early 90's when I was 23-24'ish.
Like many, dropped out of cycling for the most part for over a decade even though I moved from place to place with my road bike. Gained 35lbs, picked up the bike again almost 2 years ago.
Started to race just last month at 44 turning 45 in a week. I don't know that I'm more fit than when I was riding in my 20's but certainly more so than in any other recent year!
Not so fast sparky
2007 - After doing squat for 25 years I got a bike in at age 44. Was in horrible shape. Started riding more and losing a bunch of weight (lost a total of 95 lbs from highest to lowest and 65 of that was after starting cycling).
2009 - Decided to try a race in at age 46. Sucked really bad.
2010 - Found this place, trained some more and decided to join a team . Did 4 races. Finished near the back every time. Got lapped and/or pulled every race (except the road race where I was dropped very quickly).
2011 - Trained some more (with power now) and raced more. Got my FTP up to a stellar 235 watts at 155-160 lbs
. Met my goals of not getting dropped/lapped and then a top 10 finish in Cat 5. Upgraded to Cat 4.
2012 - Got plagued with a bunch of different health issues. Came back to race the last crit of the season here in Nashville despite continuing issues and reduced training time. Had a blast hanging on for a good while but got dropped and pulled (but I wasn't DFL at least
). Hacked up a lung in a 30 minute coughing fit while I enjoyed watching the other categories race the last local crit of the season.
2013 - 2014 - Not racing. Out of shape. Getting fat but starting to yearn to put a little more time in again and slowly start building up some fitness (though I may have to throw a knee surgery into the mix somewhere). I am hoping to do some racing in my 50's now.
I would say I improved immensely from when I started in 2007 through 2012. Though I started at such a pitiful level that peak of my vast improvement was still pretty unimpressive when compared to other racers. But still, even now, in the out of shape condition I am in I am still WAY ahead of where I was in 2007-2010. I still take some satisfaction in that.