Fifty Plus (50+) - Cycling moments

I suspect we've all had "age related" cycling moments out on the road. One of my many moments happened last October. I was doing a group ride and was probably in the best cycling shape I've ever been in. I done lots of centuries, set 3 new PR's in time trials and had ridden about 4000 miles for the year up to that point. The ride that day was a 50/100 mile charity event that a good number of riders showed up for. I had stayed with the front group for about 30 miles before I got dropped. I picked up another fellow and wound up pulling him for at least 10 miles. He had some story about doing all these crits, races etc and just didn't think he could even get back in by himself so did he mind if he rode on my wheel. I said sure and tried to ride like he wasn't there and just tried to do my usual solo ride with the hopes another group would come along we could jump in with.

At about the 40 mile mark there was a long climb and I decided to go ahead and push a little harder and the fellow on my wheel dropped off. As luck would have it another rider came along with someone on his wheel and the fellow in front looked strong and pretty fresh. He got a pretty good distance ahead of me so I set off chasing. I finally caught him but it was all I could do to stay with with him-it was obvious he was a good bit stronger than I was. I felt a surge though as I was able to chase him down and hang with him for a while. He turned around and said H-i-i-i, m-y n-a-m-e i-s G-e-n-e, in a real Southern drawl. I got to talking to him and it turns out this guy is just shy of 70-almost 20 years older than me. He had gotten there late for the mass start and was just trying to catch up with some others. I rode with him for several miles before he politely said "See you up the road" and took off!

Since then I've seen Gene out on some other rides and this guy is a legend. I just wish I had some of Gene's genes!!!

Got any moments you'd like to share?

I ride a Tandem and am the older rider on the Rear seat. I do a long off road ride each year and this is a very tiring 12 hour offroad ride that will leave most riders absolutely shattered by the end. Legs and body start to fall apart and the brain goes.
2003 and 2nd to last hill and we caught a group of riders. They were going at various speeds, and as usual, we started to crawl past them on the Tandem, First one we came across was Quite shattered and as Stuart, my pilot drew along side him, Stuart started to give him some encouragement. "Only 2 hills to go and when you get to the top of this one you can relax on the flat bits". The rider looked quite encouraged at this and mentioned that it was his fault for going out with youngsters. Stuart them said that it was hard to ride with the fit ones, as he was 40. Mind you, said the other rider, he has been shocked by the age of some of the people attempting this ride. Did you see that father and son at the start on the Tandem? The son looked fit but the father looked as though he was going to struggle. He must be 50 at least and doesn't stand a chance. Considering that there was only one Tandem at the start, I had to make a comment there. I piped up, "The fathers 57 and we are not related." He had not realised that Stuart was only the front half of a Tandem. Luckily he realised his Error and no need to apoligise as he nearly fell off his bike.

Same ride and only a mile further on at the top and with the same group. We have a trick at gates in that I jump off the back, open the gate and then when the tandem is through, close the gate, get on the Tandem again without it stopping. Did this at the first gate, but as this group was close let all of them go through and then closed the gate, got back on the Tandem as the last one went through. We felt we were fitter than this group so chased through the group for the next gate. The group was spread out by now, so Stuart stopped so I would not have to chase him too far. First one up to the gate swore like mad, and stopped. then his explanation.
At the previous gate, this old bloke had got off his bike, opened up the gate, let everyone through and then jumped back on his bike. Problem was, it was still upright and still moving. As he chased the rider to ask him how he had done it, he knew his eyes were going funny as the Mauve shirt the rider was wearing was changing colour. He knew about fatigue on hard rides but this was the first time he had been shown up by an old git, even if it was the end of the ride. When he saw the Tandem, he still could not believe it as No tandem had ever done this ride and he had done every one.
We had ridden past him twice, going like the clappers to do the gates for him and the rest of the group, and his brain had not registered that there was a Tandem amongst them. Funn y what fatigue can do

Great story. It reminds me of my hero (in our club), John Sinibaldi who is now 91, but was winning the club sprints at the age of 80. I have mentioned him before, but if you have not read any of those threads, John was a two time olympian ('32 & '36), and 10 times US national champion. He still cranks along in the 20's with seemingly no effort. I want to be like him when I grow up.