Of a 20 YO? Time to grow up Terry. :D

Comparing myself to the average 70 YO, I must confess I am far better looking. :D

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But that’s not saying I am superior in any way

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That looks like it could be part of a really bad day of riding!!!

Compare to a 66 yo grandmother
 

What a wonderful story. She is a trained athlete with genetic gifts but to so humble someone 20 years younger with a solid FTP made for a fun read. May she keep it up!

I am about to turn 60, so I will be back in another 10 years. :innocent:

Damn pranking youngsters!

72 and mtn biking still. No cars to deal with just e-bikes.

Good for you. My back could not take the pounding going over boulders, logs and off drops. I see you live in Auburn. Do you ride the single track between Maidu Dr and the American River next to the overlook? I have hiked those trails up and down to the river and the climbs are a beast. Can’t remember the name of the state park.

We walk there when we don’t ride. Not the best place for riding. Trails are in poor shape and straight up or down. Most of our biking is at Hidden Falls. Nice and rolling. The upper part is fairly beat up by horses walking in the mud. They should close the place for a few days after a good soaking but from what I’ve seen, doesn’t happen.

Just thought of the name - China Bar. Funny how names disappear and then the next day - poof, they’re back. Have driven out to Hidden Falls parking area with my mom who can now only barely walk, so the falls stayed hidden. Happy trails to you.

Same, except no e-bikes.
Frankly, 72 is not old, in my case anyway. In my head anyway

I’m 72 also. Still doing what I did 50 years ago. A bit slower but lot’s smarter.


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Being in the 73+ cycling 'crowd' = I feel obliged.....
 

..... but I am categorically opposed to comparisons of my own imagined generalizations.

Everyone jumps to data. Not being a data guy I didn't get into the thread earlier (personal stats). But for 2 days recently had access to a NordicTrack iFit machine/app so I took advantage of an opportunity to measure watts. On a 26 min ride which included a warmup the Avg Watts was 215. quick break to pee, then another 26 min program skipping the warmup, yielded 210 watts. Neither ride was intended to be a full gas effort, but was intended to be an effort slightly harder than i typically ride.

The full gas effort was scheduled for the next day, ..... just didn't happen. Guessing I could average 230-ish for 25 min, which is less than the 248 for a 60 min effort I got on this same machine about 4 years ago at the end of a good riding season.

Comparisons? when I ride with other 70+ guys - sorry, no gals that age - I almost always keep up. When I hike with guys and gals 70+ i keep up or lead. [Seems funny, never encountered competition in the 70+ crowd] When at 60+, I rode CascadeBicycleClub group B+ rides (16-19ish mph) I always kept up.

Compared to the general population = I just don't know who they are, or what they really do. :foo: But if they have been as Lucky as me (or is it "I"), they have developed and pursued a bunch of hobbies which have enriched their lives and brought many smiles to their faces.

edit: hehehehe,.... I oughta be fast, I got a lot of bikes to prove it! :D

Hike in the morning and then a short spin on this Mondia before the PNW rainy returns. (Obviously not todays's picture.)
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Those are some impressive watts for anyone over 70, well done! That much power pushes me into a high zone 3/low zone 4 heart rate, even though I'm a relative youngster in my 67th year. My one advantage is being lightweight, so my 215 watts is about 3.6 W/kg (hence the "climbing has-been" moniker).

I don't talk Power/Weight.
I should be a flatlander.
People like to draft me.
Small frontal is a goal.
Saddle time over speed.

edit:
Decades of practice
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72 as well. My cardiologist wants me to ride daily if possible, for circulation. Slowly because I have stable angina. And to top things off I’m on a beta blocker for arrhythmia.

^^get it fixed. I did with 3 stents. O what a relief.

And this thread will still be going strong :)

If only yhere was s poll

Getting back to the original topic, we 70+ riders are far cooler than the general population, because we ride bikes and they don't.

Ooo-ooo-ooo: So I grew up in Fairbanks, delivered papers on foot year-round, coldest day was -65°. That's pretty cold. A tire fell off a delivery truck that day, broke when it hit the ground. Yeah, old tech probably. When I was in the Army in Germany, I had a Renault R10, fabulous car, great in the snow. One time I drove down to Davos to ski. I was a poor and penny-pinching soldier, so I spent the night in the car. It was -53°F. I had a North Face down bag with ~6" of loft. I don't think anyone makes anything like that anymore - quite light for what it was - the baffles were mosquito netting. Anyway, had a fine night. The trick is to hold absolutely still. In the morning of course the car wouldn't start - battery way too cold. So I walked into town to a service station, but no luck. The fellow told me they had a backlog of about 100 cars or so. So I walked back to the car and noticed that I was parked in a turnout and it and the road had a slight downhill. So I pushed like crazy, jumped in and put it in 2nd gear and . . .it started right up. I did go skiing, did 3 runs which involved 3 long chairlift rides and that was plenty. Didn't frostbite anything. A lot of that is knowing how to exhale. War stories.

Wonderful story. Thanks for sharing.

Quite on topic, yes? Like compared to the general population . . . We're all frigging nuts.

Well, no, in fact we're the sane ones. The rest of them are all frigging nuts.

never mind :rolleyes:

Am told i look far younger than my age. And then there is my mental age which is regressing even faster.

Truth is...

"I Am More Beat Up Than I Look"

One month short of 80 but riding
 

Always active but discovered bikes at 40. I ride but not as much and not as fast. Gave up the tandem after 30 hard years of service. I still buy, rescue, wrench and pass opportunistic bargain quality bikes to the bike coop, and am still a daily visitor to BF. I'm staying the course.

Q!!
 

3 months shy of 80, 18 miles on the tandem yesterday and a fairly strong ride. But then my stoker is 4 years younger than I, still just a kid. I started at 50, so not as much time in grade, didn't buy the tandem until '07. She's like, "I can't ride as fast you you!" so I go "On the back if my bike you can." Thus the deal was done.

I just turned 70 in December, I started riding again 4 years ago. I’ve been riding since I was a kid, but life got in the way as did moves (military family). Once we settled here in Florida I was wanting to get back into this. Now, I’m out on my hybrid about 4 to 5 times a week. Rain is about the only thing that keeps me indoors…and the occasional hurricane. I can see myself riding into my 80’s. I want to keep the arthritis at bay, and get my weight down….this is the way to do it.

My wife and I won the 2025 USA Cycling's Masters eSports Nationals Championships - 75 and 76 years old respectively. Among the elites and masters racing categories, 20 digital jerseys were handed out and we won two. eSports is interesting and there was a substantial qualification process to get an invitation to race. Weak hands were shaken out early. I think many potential participants did not want to do the work to qualify for whatever reason and the fields were small. I think over time, more cyclists will try eSports races that feature a fairly high level of control of who can participate because it puts racers on a level playing field with oversight and rules.

How do we compare against the average population in our mid seventies? We get the same BS from Garmin saying we are 20 something years old based upon their VO2 measurement. We think that is somewhat bogus and we could improve VO2, IF we wanted to train for VO2 against their measurement system. That does not support our racing goals.

We do banded rides together on Zwift. On Sunday, we did one hour and rode z2. Generally, my wife rode at 2.2-2.5 w/kg and I did the climbs at 2.5 - 3 w/kg. Usually, we had a gang of Klingons riding our wheel. We thought the Klingons did really well. Fun ride.

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