Thanks - these sound like great routes. Transmountain must be a good climb. My folks lived in Sunland Park just west of El Paso. I actually had an old bike I kept at their place but sorry to say never rode it much. In my 70s now, I ride much more than at any other point in my life.

They do not have to be. Nor must they be inclusive just to be a cyclist. That's the point. Many of us simply ride for fun. I don't care how long yesterday's ride was so long as I enjoyed it.

Gigantic +1 from me!

Best regards

​​​​​​
Will be twice Cav's age this October as he gets well deserved accolades for epic accomplishments at the TdF, at such an elderly age, his latest coming in Stage 6. Guess we're all going for green in our own way.

Pogacar went faster on today's uphills than I do on the flats around here.

Well, if I put in 50, 40, or even 30 miles I'd be on here crowing about it like these young guys. But those days are past, so I just ride. At least I'm not crowing up in Pills and Ills.

Well............I qualify - being 74!

It isn't young guys who seem to do the most gratuitous crowing about their bicycling possessions and distance, speed and/or frequency so-called accomplishments on this list.

You could measure in kilometres like I do, that's how one gets larger numbers.:50: :lol:

Introduction from Cape Cod
 

I wanted to introduce myself to the group, I hope you don’t mind if I copy my introduction post.

We are on the Cape from May till September/October. I will be 70 next November. Was a long time runner but of course running is a self selecting sport so around 50 knees and back started to balk. Picked up rowing as an alternative 4 times a week in a gym. Stayed with that pretty consistently until the Pandemic hit. Gym closed and I had an old entry level tank of hybrid bike that I had tuned and started riding seriously for the first time in my life. I stay on paths and am blessed to have a beautiful 11 mile run here on the Cape. I am up to 21 miles 3 times a week and have a new bike on order my wife of 44 years is giving me for my big birthday 70. 2021 Trek Domane AL 5 hopefully will be here before my 71st birthday😀. Have really fallen in love with the sport and still compete with myself as far as times go. Glad to say I am still improving but of course that’s from a pretty slow base. Look forward to spending a little time here learning from some of the wisdom that seems to be present, especially with this group.

Jim

What Size did you order?

Posting the same thing in TWO Threads becomes confusing to those that answer.

54cm
sorry, rookie mistake
won’t happen again

Many Happy Safe Miles ahead for you.

Key word there is Safe, had one spill last year so I am conscious of falling, but still try and get a good workout in when I ride.
thanks for the kind thoughts
Jim

Please use the Largest Size tires your bike will take.
I hit a crack and Crashed at 16 Mph onto my Helmeted Head w 700 x 23 tires.
Caused a Brain Bleed and emergency surgery to Stop the bleed. 72 y/o old at the time.

I ran for many years up into my late 50's with a similar result, knees and back trouble to this day, now 70. I would strongly recommend a professional fit and go so far as to say some shops do a sorta get you going fit and some will better help your particular physical condition and age so asking around might be worth your while.

I had to wait 24 hrs before I could reply according to the rules here. The LBS I ordered the bike from is a long term fixture here. They offer three different levels of fitting services and I have already put in my request. Thanks for the reply

Friend of mine, younger than me (he is 69), is opposed to getting the vax whereas I've had both jabs and everyone else I know has as well and does not regret it. Not sure how many people believe as I do as I saw many wearing masks on bicycle rides when it was not necessary even during the early part of the pandemic but, I rarely see people wearing masks on bike rides now so I assume they're all vaccinated. My feeling is, everyone should have the choice unless their job puts them in contact with fragile persons who cannot get vaccinated. Fears of the vax seem mostly to be based on misinformation and outright negative fear-mongering propaganda, the latest example of which I noticed was an article based on research that had been retracted as it had misinterpreted the data in a Norwegian database incorrectly and came to erroneous conclusions that were not supported by the data nor the science. My guess is, all the cyclists in the Tour de France are vaccinated or many certainly will come down with covid-19 with all the people standing on the side of the road shouting and sometimes, actually screaming within inches of the faces of riders as they pass by. I enjoy watching the TDF and the current one has been the best of'm all but most of the fans that line the roads seem like idiots to me but then, I'm nearing 72 so to them I guess I'm just a grumpy albeit open-minded old man on wheels with common sense and appreciation for science. Seems odd to me though that after a stage, participants will be interviewed and they'll be wearing masks despite all that they've been exposed to for hours beforehand. If all of the cyclists have been vaccinated I wish they would publicize that fact as it might help overcome the vaccine hesitancy among those in the population who are concerned about getting immunized.

I don't know about the "vaccine hesitancy" in Europe or among those in the European population who attend or eagerly watch the TDF or closely follow such races, or what might influence such people to overcome that hesitancy.
I suspect that most of the U.S. based population that is vocal (and often proud) about its so-called "vaccine hesitancy" couldn't care less about the TDF, the participants or what cyclists anywhere might say or do about COVID 19.

Given back-to-back wins of the two toughest mountain stages, there should be calls to restore the first 2 of Lance Armstrong's 7 TDF wins if Tadej Pogačar takes 2 TDF wins in a row which is starting to look more than likely.

Why? Give us a logical reason for that.
BTW "they all cheat and dope" wouldn't be the right one.

Google, 'doping Slovenia,' and you get a lot of hits like for example, this from a March 2019 Cycling News--
Lot of articles about doping in Slovenian hockey.

No such rumors concerning LA back in '99 or '00...

The doping pros are always a step ahead of the anti-doping authorities. I suppose we'll all know in a few years looking back but, looking back now to 1999/2000, there's zero evidence LA doped back then. Who's to say he wasn't clean such that his entire professional career should be erased as if it never existed.

I guess we know what UAE's stand on alcohol use would be but how seriously does it take doping. I have no clue. I Googled it and saw this about a UAE team failing an out of season doping test...

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uae-team-colombia-shut-operations-after-doping-positive/
​​​​​​
The invasion of the Bahrain team's privacy yesterday by TdF officials, accompanied by the police, apparently was in response to allegations in the French press. They didn't find anything. So, what if Bahrain's team was this year's winner and was caught doing drugs in a TdF 5 years from now-- should disqualification include canceling wins 5 years earlier even tho there was no evidence of drug use then?

The 1998 TdF win by Pantani was not stripped. Rather than saying it should have been stripped, I am questioning whether earlier wins by LA should be stripped even tho there's was no evidence of doping.

Googled this (found in an article about Tadej Pogačar's coach)--

IDK ... I don't hear many Covid-19 anti-vaxxers arguing that schools can't mandate vaccines against measles, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio (and whatever else has been added since 1978 when my kid started school). And we see extremely high percentages of dying and hospitalized people (at very high cost ) coming from the unvaccinated population. My bet is that a lot of today's Covid-19 anti-vaxxers will get jabbed, especially if it's publicized that some of the Covid-19-is-fake leadership got themselves vaxxed.

I'm writing about double standards and hypocrisy hear, not about politics.

How are double standards and hypocrisy not politics?

How is discussion of minutia about pro cycling's and pro cyclists' doping issues as well as TDF results relevant to this subforum and/or sticky thread?

Is this an indication that the 65-85 thread is a Foo-like thread for old timers?

Very nostalgic even if one only competed in group races at the local level. :D

I got back to the "pack" in a bigger way last year, at 75 I was determined that even old fools can fool around.
Just as our XC skiing venue was forced to close down because of Covid19 I allowed myself a couple of weeks before switching over to cycling.
Our Rail Trail opened back in Sept 2018; maximum grade that my bike computer indicates <2%. At first my attitude was "meh" too flat, but I soon learned that it was the cat's meow to add kilometres and have a consistent base to compare to.
Total for last years outdoors season 3120km, that also included one day a week heading for the hilly road courses around here. :50:

cheers

HJ

P:S The side benefit was minimal start-up ramp to get to the previous season's rhythm and speed on the snow, this despite the 1200m elevation difference between the valley bottom and the mountain where we ski.

Phil Liggett is 77, Bobke is only 61 but Eddy Merckx is 76... if he hadn't died, Paul Sherwin would be 65. This latest Tour was the best I've seen and I've been following it since the '90s and having it unfold live is fairly exceptional, I think but... I'm old now so little things amaze me.

I like Phil & Bobke & company.
but it is kinda lightweight stuff for the American market., but given the hours to talk away - highlighting a French ASO video feed, they get the job done with Chris & Christian.
Thank you NBCSN.

Yes.