Yes, but was it sport?
January 5, 2017 § 50 Comments
Robert Marchand, age 105, and French of course, set a new hour record for centenarians, pedaling his bike about twelve miles in sixty minutes, a pace that, as one wag put it, “is about how fast you’d ride down to the bakery for a baguette.”
Many thousands hailed the feat, but at least one sour journalist called the new hour record, “good for him, absurd for us,” as he railed about the silliness of calling the spectacle of a 105-year-old man puttering around a velodrome sport, or anything other than a testament to the simple impressiveness of existing at such an advanced age. He compared the feat to a circus freak show, where people are gawked at not for what they’ve done, but for what they are.
And his point isn’t a bad one. Presumably the pool of riders over the age of 100 attempting the hour record, is, well, small. And the angry journalist continued with the pretty shrewd observation that the real fascination isn’t with the cycling “exploit,” it’s with Marchand’s longevity. Rather than questions about training, equipment, or the incredible mental fortitude one needs to tackle the hour record, everyone wanted to know not the secret to his sporting success but the secret to his long life. It’s as if the press conference were to ask Usain Bolt, after breaking a world record, about the secret to his beautiful teeth.
One physician broke down Marchand’s longevity thus: 30% genetic, and 70% willpower, courage, and “clean living.” That sounds like an extremely unscientific 70 percent to me. He also noted, and this is the key, that Marchand’s record wasn’t an absolute one, but rather age-graded. It wasn’t a statement about the capacity of a person on a bike, it was a statement about the capacity of a 105-year-old-man on a bike, a capacity that few will ever be able to challenge because hardly anyone will ever a) live to be that old and b) be able to ride a bike if they are.
It’s the ultimate master’s race, where you are categorized first by the condition of your prostate, and only once it’s adjudged to be sufficiently flappy and leaky, does one look at your actual performance on the bike.
And frankly, why stop with the hour record in cycling? All that Marchand needs to do now is get in the pool and freestyle 100 laps and he will be the world record holder for that, too, and he could also pick up the world titles in the 200, 400, 800, and 1,500 simply by making it to one end of the pool and back a few times. Track and field events are probably out of his range, as the running events are already populated with 105-year-old champions, but there is an entire Guinness Book of World Records that Marchand could rewrite simply by doing them. Oldest guy to eat ten donuts, oldest guy to drink four cups of coffee, oldest guy to walk and chew gum at the same time. He could become the most decorated, record-breaking human of all time, not because he was particularly good at anything, but simply because he existed.
But …
If you take away all of the circus-freak enthusiasts who are in denial about their own age, who think that “age is just a number” (so is the speed of light, by the way), and who are really fascinated by Marchand’s longevity rather than his cycling, and if you focus on the cycling aspect itself, it’s not without athletic merit.
First, though, a few parameters. Sport seems to have two components, the absolute and the relative. Absolute records are the gold standard for performance, in this case the greatest distance ridden by any human being ever in one hour on a velodrome. There are no centenarians in this category.
The other component is relative. Men versus women, juniors versus elite athletes, para-athletes verus non-para athletes, and of course the ultimate “everyone’s a winner” combo of age + gender categorizations, i.e. masters events. And this doesn’t even begin to touch on the relativity of closed universe sports, the best example of which is the World Series of Baseball which includes a single country.
Do these relative categorizations demean the legitimacy of an athletic accomplishment and deny it the category of sport? That depends. There’s a good argument to be made that if you’re the only person competing, it’s probably not as sporting as when you’re going against a field of a hundred competitors. And as you age, the pool gets smaller. Obviously. That’s why the idea of Marchand the oldest record holder in the 100 freestyle, Marchand the record holder donut eater, Marchand the record holder TV watcher doesn’t really sound that impressive.
On the other hand, the older you are, the harder it gets, and I’m not talking about your package. People who think that riding a bike at 80 isn’t a challenge simply don’t know anything about what it’s like to be 80. As you age everything gets harder, and more to the point, it gets a lot deadlier.
Falling off a bicycle, for example, is something that you’ll bounce up from in your 20s, but that could easily kill you in your 80s, to say nothing of your 90s, or dog forbid, your 100s. Danger and risk are part of sport, aren’t they? And we admire people who do courageous things, don’t we? Well, Marchand takes his life in his hands every time he throws a leg over. One false move and he could well be dead. 105-year-olds don’t get second chances.
For the people who think that Marchand’s feat is anything but, how many activities do you engage in daily that, with a single misstep, could kill you?
This understanding of the rising risk for aging athletes brings us back full circle, which is to the biggest sport, the biggest competition of all, that is to say longevity. Your longevity, unlike your master’s mixed time trial for riders 65+, is matched against every human who has ever lived. Life is the ultimate competition, and once you crack a hundred you are in rarefied air. Once you crack 105 you are, statistically, not only among the super elite, you are literally days away from death.
People who make it that far are rarely paragons of physical fitness. My wife’s grandmother, at 101, is completely senile and can’t walk. Life grinds you down, and most people, statistically, get ground down to death before they ever hit 80, much less 105. Things break, shit stops functioning, small accidents become catastrophic injuries, things fall apart, cf. Chinua Achebe.
So here we have a guy who didn’t just make the ultimate selection of life, and make it to the incredible age of 105, but he also had enough on the ball to ride his bike for an hour around a velodrome, and lest we forget, on a bike with no brakes. How many people age 50 can do that?
But even if you still don’t buy that a guy competing against himself is sport, isn’t it refreshing that the news media can celebrate some old codger for having the gumption to get out there and ride around in circles for an hour? Doesn’t it make you smile, just a little bit, to see someone that old making so many other people feel good about life, and inspiring people to try harder no matter what their age?
Makes me smile, anyway, which means that his feat wasn’t just good for him, but it was good for me, too.
END
————————
For $2.99 per month you can subscribe to this blog and get none of the news that’s fit to print but all the news that’s fun to read. Click here and select the “subscribe” link in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you!
Cycling in the South Bay 
I’m happy for the old guy. I just hope he Strava’d it.
Because otherwise …
… the older you are, the harder it gets … … your package. Priceless!
Snickerz.
There’s an astonishing split in the U.S. population right around 50. In the morning I can ride with guys over 50 who are 20-30% off world class performance. Which is really fast. Then I can go to Wal-mart and see legions of people the same age who have entered the end-game stage of life. Vacant, lifeless stare, electric carts, oxygen bottles, etc.
Yeah, sometimes the first group can get too self-important at playing bike racer. But if playing bike racer is what gets them out of bed in the morning, then fine with me. (And I’m talking about myself at 43).
And even if they’re 90% off world class performance, as you point out, they’re riding their bikes.
I’ll never forget the time I went to Chincoteague NWR and saw a husband/wife pedaling MTB’s; they were incredible obese, 300-400 pound category. But you know what? They were riding bikes, so good for them.
Students Designing First-Ever Bike for Overweight Ridership
http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/trends/students-designing-first-ever-bike-for-overweight-riders
Now there’s no excuse for 300 pounders
Yes, there is. The same excuse for <300 pounders: Pizza!
The reports I read list his hour distance at 22.547 km or 14+ miles (not 12). I would be happy to be riding at all when I’m 105. Like you said, the thought “Makes me smile…”
Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who are one-third or even one-quarter his age who can’t ride that far in an hour. Without change they may be condemned to a shorter life and a life without the adventures enjoyed by bicyclists, runners, swimmers, hikers or other outdoor active people. That makes me frown.
I always get confused by metric stuff so I just make up equivalents. 100 km is about 60 miles, 1 kg is 2 pounds, because, stupid American.
It’s 14 miles, and that’s a big difference from 12, especially at 105.
But was it an English hour or a metric one?
Reading about Marchand two days ago really did make my day and made me smile big time. I said to myself “Good for him!” Feel good story of the day.
The last 8 yrs I’ve been involved in the day to day lives of four elderly relatives over 80. I truly wish one of them was able to just get on a stationary bike. Marchand’s record is something to celebrate. Not because of the “world record” but because he “could”. The “could” translates into so much more than riding a bike.
Yes.
It’s probably safe to say that he has in fact outlived all the wankers who outraced him in the past, which has been my ongoing plan.
It’s probably safe to say that he has in fact outlived all the wankers, period. And non-wankers.
Here in the deep freezing state of Illinois we have several “old” cyclists. One of them lives right here in my home town and he is 91. This past summer I happened upon him while riding a well traveled local training route. We had an intense and deep conversation about TRAINING!!! He knew that I have degree(s), certifications, coaching credentials etc and he picked my brain for over an hour on how HE could get faster. Heck, he even knew all his gym lifting numbers!!! The man is my hero……
Being old is hard work.
I love this story F the negativity !! You try to ride a bike with no brakes at 105 years old
EXACTLY!!!!
I’d give him the yellow jersey in the Tour de Life.
Which is the one that matters, last time I checked.
“I did not see the sign warning me I had 10 minutes left…Otherwise I would have gone faster, I would have posted a better time.” – Proving that complete bike racer self-delusion lasts until you are 105, literally. Love that guy.
So funny. “I had bad legs,” and “My coach put me on the wrong pace,” and of course “I forgot to use wax on my chain instead of lube for the extra 5 watts.”
He used a road bike with brakes and derailleurs. But still . . .
I take it all back then. Dude’s a complete loser.
I wonder if there’s some pack-fill 105 year old French dude that Marchand has been beating year in and year out forever….
You know there is. And that guy has been dead since 1973.
From the live video at Daily Mail, it looks to me like he was on a regular road bike with derailleur and brakes, not a track or TT bike. That adds a bit to the accomplishment. Still, I hope I can still ride a bike at 80, much less 105.
I sit corrected …
“…World Series of Baseball which includes a single country…”
Point taken but, waggishly, did we annex Canada?
Are they calling Canada a country now? Sheesh. What’s next?
I thought Canada was the draft free state…
Draft beer state.
Not to nitpick, but the World Series of Baseball includes teams from two countries, and players from many more.
Yet another person claiming that Canada is a country. The quality of my readership is low. Really low.
It was actually a stage race.
Stage 1: Getting on the bike.
Stage 2: Riding the race course.
Stage 3: Getting off the bike.
Not to mention the transfers from home to venue and back home again, dealing with the media, etc. etc.
(No word on whether the showers at the Velodrome National ran out of hot water)
Perhaps this truly remarkable feat will awaken another round of interest in one of the great events of cycling.
Mr. Sagan?
Pooping. You left out pooping.
That only happens on the rest days.
If you smiled or (especially) laughed, you are still young. Very, very young if you laughed.
I’m old. Very, very old. But I sometimes still laugh.
We have several 80+ year olds in our cycling club in Richmond and they can still crank out the miles. I pulled this story up on my team meeting yesterday to let everyone know that I only had 46 years until I can take his record down.
He’s an inspiration because he’s not only cheating death, he’s giving it the finger!
I’d go easy on flipping off the Oldest One …
Awesome on all levels, not to take anything away from the new record holder, but I think people of that generation had a different take on live. When I was younger I used to ride with some one who would have been a contemporary, who unfortunately passed about 20 years ago. His weekend cycling activities would go like this, Saturday ride to event 25 to 100+ miles , optional 25mile TT Saturday day night. Camp in field. Sunday main event 50-200 mile TT. Ride home.
I just helped my 90-something year old parent buy a trike and bling it out a few weeks ago. It gets ridden regularly. New bike infrastructure in his neighborhood is making a huge difference in quality of life. I’m not sure an hour record is in the future, but, all the kids are as pleased as the bike rider.
100 will be more normal than extraordinary with advances in public health.
US has the most centenarians.
you bring up a very important point re: risk/reward as one gets older. I’d never considered that until a little over a year ago when my dad (82 at the time) decided to make things exciting and pulled an OTB maneuver on the road. He still doesnt know why it occurred or how he got home. Punctured lung, shredded hide, in the hospital for 4 days.
He was off the bike for over a month, now he’s back on the horse (Cinelli) that threw him.
Some people just dont know when to quit, I hope I have that gene.
(And a hearty chapeau to Sr Marchand!)
The ground gets harder. Way harder.
Locally, Robert Paganini — racing age 81 ! — is still very active.
https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=robert+paganini
“Pags” is a very crafty racer … while he’s no longer getting podiums in the 60+ SCNCA crits, he’s nearly always a few places ahead of the DFL guys.
If you think it was easy try to ride for an hour on a velodrome then add 1km/pr hour for every year under 105 that you are see how much fun that could be.
If you think it was easy to ride for an hour on a velodrome, you’ve never ridden for an hour on a velodrome.