Can age actually make you a better endurance cyclist? Getting older is inevitable but how much does it affect cycling performance? Some of the greatest endurance athletes may not be able to reach high powers, but they sure can churn out the mileage. Si investigates the correlation between age and improvements in long-distance cycling capacity.
00:00 Intro
01:03 Famous endurance cyclists
01:50 Famous endurance runners
02:30 What is endurance cycling
05:57 Interview with Nick Craig
08:14 Mark Beaumont endurance cyclist
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Let’s face it as we get older we tend to only go One Direction downhill however that’s just not true age brings with it a wealth of benefit rugged good looks wisdom and endurance allegedly in this video I want to find out I want to find out if endurance
Really does improve with age because it is super relevant to cycling particularly because events that are longer and longer are getting more and more popular I have been diving into the science to find the answer but we will also be hearing from two very successful super experienced Riders from very different
Backgrounds round the world record holder Mark Bowmont and also former pro Nick Craig who’s still tearing it up in sross at the age of 54 now fortunately we’ve got a lot of older endurance athlet thetes as role models in cycling perhaps the world’s number one male ultra distance Rider
Kristoff straser is 41 he became the first person to cycle over a th000 kilom in 24 hours at the age of 39 and he’s just one of the two most recent editions of the Transcontinental and then there Isa Pulver she won the grueling Race Across America at 52 and amazingly she wasn’t
Either the first 50 plus athlete or the first woman to do so Leah Goldstein had achieved the same feat a couple of years before which was also the same year that JP tavari had won the equally groeling tour divide at 49 and then running has even more like Harvey Lewis who just ran
450 m in 108 hours at the age of 54 and and it’s important to note it’s not just a few freaks of nature that seem to improve with age because when we made a film recently about the Paris breast Paris the biggest ultra distance event in Europe we found out that the average
Age of participants was 51 so what’s going on here is it just that older athletes like doing endurance events or is it that as we get older we get better at endurance Events first as we have to start by defining what we mean by endurance so the Tour of France for
Example certainly requires endurance but that seems highly unlikely to be won by a 50-year-old anytime soon although we should say anim van vuon won the Tour to France fam aex wift and the jir and the Welter 2 for that matter at the age of 39 but even she retired soon after and
That’s because Pro bike races whether they’re many hours long over successive days or even successive weeks like a grand tour like the tour to France are actually won and lost in super high power output situations that might be a 10-second Sprint it might be a 3 minute
Max effort a 10minute Max effort or even longer than that and unfortunately we do know because it’s well documented and long since proven that our Peak Powers right through to our V2 Maxes and Beyond decline once we get into our 30s however what about pure endurance that ability
To just keep on going mile after mile hour after hour never going super fast but also crucially never stopping either well that is a very different story and we found the answer in a paper called muscle characteristics and substrate energetics in lifelong endurance athletes in it a team of researchers
From the University of Pittsburgh in the US and laan in Switzerland showed that older endurance athletes people in their 60s in this case had significantly improved exercise metabolic efficiency compared to athletes in their 20s of course there will be outliers and freaks of nature that buck this trend but in
Essence what the researchers have shown is that older athletes are better able to burn fat as their primary source of fuel at moderate intensities compared to younger athletes who rely far more on carbohydrate and actually more research has shown that that Improvement may be even more significant for women than men
Now unfortunately younger athletes have an advantage at higher intensities because they can burn more carbohydrates and older athletes actually simply can’t store or don’t store as much carbohydrates but that doesn’t really matter for urance because gram for gram fat is a far more energy dense source of
Fuel thereby suggesting that as we get older we are naturally better equipped for endurance it explains why my younger cyclists tend to hit the wall or Bonk so hard and so catastrophically so frequently whereas older athletes just don’t tend to and that actually tallies up with my own experiences as well I
Need far less fuel now on my long rides than I did when I was doing far more frequent long endurance training rides when I was a pro and yet the power output is slightly less but not dramatically so now while the research doesn’t say so my hypothesis is that whilst your Peak
Power and your V2 Max decline in your 30s because your metabolic efficiency is improving actually you hit your endurance Sweet Spot in later decades and that’s because you’ve got that ability to go longer but your Peak power hasn’t declined too much so you’re still fast and you can go further as I got
Older into my late 30s when I Pro you know it wasn’t really a job anymore um I’d been a Pro mountain biker and I was switching into this uh transition where I did go to do more endurance racing um I found the first few years I
Only needed to do one one long uh training camp week a year and it seem to remind my body how to how to do what it is it’s almost like you know a muscle memory there was there was almost a memory in endurance it but I I don’t know what
That is it was just there I just seem to in my 40s I I seem to be able to ride less explosively and more uh more like a diesel now it’s important to note that as a cycle cross racer and cross country mountain biker endurance to Nick is 3 to
5 hours not 35 hours but it certainly seems to be the case with him that his improved metabolic efficiency was kicking in and so maybe your 40s your 50s and perhaps even Beyond is really the time to kick on with your endurance and certainly with our improved training knowledge and nutrition knowledge now
Age is not the barrier it once was to Performance older athletes are just getting better and better in fact a study conducted in the British Journal of sports medicine from back in 2004 showed that New York marathon runners top Runners of 50 and over they’re finish times improved more between the
Period of 1983 and 1999 than those of younger athletes and actually now people that technically qualify as pensioners are performing as well as top athletes once did so if you look at the times for the first ever Olympic Games back in 1896 the time for the winner of the
Marathon has now been bettered by a 73y old but it’s really important to note here that this endurance ability goes Way Beyond the physical I mentioned in the introduction about age and wisdom and that is also absolutely critical for endurance the the inability to to do big
Big distances I think does come with the way you see yourself uh I think if you’re scared by big distances if you’re scared by endurance you know you can be quite intimidated by you know whatever that is a 50 mile 100 mile a double century whatever’s in your
Comfort zone I think I think a lot of it is is how you see yourself if you think well I’ve done this before I know it’s I know what it’s going to feel like I’m in that place again I know how to deal with
It so the the mental tool kit I think is a huge part of it so I remember when we did the North Coast 500 in 3 days and years and dark moment and uh and I think I observed that maybe you hadn’t been there quite as often as I had um and
It’s not not not that was physically hurting any any any less I think it was just I I was more familiar with that place he’s right I did have some very dark moments on that trip but I have got better I’ve got better at endurance and
It’s not through training it can only be through experience I’ll stop short of saying that I have reached a point of wisdom but I do feel like I could say that about Nick do you find that you can draw on your experience to get a bit
More out of yourself yeah I think you does does I suppose if I was riding the Three Peaks and I’m with some young guys I’d certainly know how to how to work and ride with them and you know I often find myself riding with the younger guys
And there I I’m thinking that this this kid’s going to be you know he’s going to ride off in a minute and it’s me that rides off because they can I think because they can go faster up that climb along that bit there they can’t resist
Putting the effort in I can’t put that effort in so I can’t can’t damage myself so when we go from say in the three PS when I go say on the road section from ingra through to wors side kids that are youngsters you know 20 22 24 year olds
And you know I’m like I’m encouraging them riding with them and I guess that’s experience and the strange thing is it was me that then went forward when you know as you would think on that road section the way the kid was riding you would think it would be him that would
Have ridden off so that’s experience um and I think maybe just the fact that I can’t um I can’t make those efforts that means that I will do more consistent slower longer effort to get the same to get the best result I can as
You know we to me I see it quite simple when we’re racing we have a start line we have a Finish Line you work with people and you get the best out of yourself and them and you know I talk to people I encourage people and I I I’ll
Get them to um help me basically without them even knowing it so does endurance improve with age yes absolutely it does physically it does although up to a point however wisdom resilience and experience just keep on getting better and better challenge yourself if you’ve only ever
Ridden 60 or 70 miles you can do 100 just go and do it now as always I’d be really really interested to hear your thoughts and experiences so get stuck in in the comments section down below if you’re an older athlete have you found that your endurance has improved with
Age what kind of personal best records and events have you been doing as the years have advanced and how much have you improved if at all get involved in the comment section as I said really looking forward to read that now huge thanks as always to Mark and to Nick for
Their time and their insight as well please if You’ enjoyed this video give it a big thumbs up
27 Comments
Has your endurance improved with age? 🧐
Metabolic chemistry aside, endurance is a lot about mental capacity. I believe as you get older your head (mental state) is in a different place. It's built up a huge amount of experience, not just physical experience but life in general. I believe this helps during endurance efforts and makes us better at it than our younger selves.
100%. In my early twenties I used to ride to the coast and back many times. Was only 70 miles and that was enough. Never did 100 miles. Back in 2013, when I was 45, whilst training for the RideLondon sportive I got used to riding 100 miles and now I ride at least 15 x 100 mile days a year. Even 186 miles aged 52 on the Welsh Dragon devil.
Interesting topic,endurance rides in my 60s are easier but recovery takes longer.In my 30s my best time up Boxhill in surrey was 8 minutes 30 seconds on a steel Daccordi with racing gears which weighed 21ib.My best time set in my 50s is 7 minutes 45 seconds on a carbon bike with compact gears.My best steel bike time set when i was 60 is 9 minutes 30 seconds on a bike that weighs 20ib,so in 30 years on that climb I've lost a Minute so yes I've lost power but not that much.
Sarah looks like a natural runner. When is next video with Kerry? Tell the lazy bugger to get back out on the bike haha. The planes will work themselves out..
You're going to hate me for this comment…. But i totally agree that endurance increases with age, which is why I've progressed from high level cycling to…. Triathlon. Yes that's right, at the age of 48 I've gone sock-less and embraced multi-event endurance. Hello GTN!!👋
Still love GCN though 😁
Yeah defo have found I've got faster over longer distances. Have done Tour de Mont Blanc riding over 200 miles with over 25,000ft of climbing in 14 hours 38 mins ride time, riding around Mallorca solo in 10 hours 45 as well as Le Jog Solo in 5 days. Yeah, Id say at the age of 53 I've got a strong aerobic engine which I'd also put down to strength training, keeping up with consistent and vo2 blocks of training throughout the year.
Hi Si, thanks a lot for this great video.
I think you nailed it really!!!
I am 52 and I started my endurance “career” with 38, more or less, and I have been getting better since, BUT (there is always a but), don’t forget to talk about RECOVERY. Unfortunately recovery capabilities decline with age, at least in my case, and that needs to be taken into to account when you plan your training, otherwise overtraining becomes a serious threat!!!
Thanks again great video!
I definitely bonk less as I get older
In my late 40s, I've noticed a decreased need for energy intake during long endurance rides; often, a Snickers in my pocket for emergencies is sufficient.
Dear GCN team,
first I would like to say thank`s for the amazing work you all do for this sport we love!
Many hours I´ve spent learning, dreaming and most of all, having fun watching all of you.
I need help with one "simple" question and I believe you guys can help me with it:
As a leisure rider reaching 40 years old, my goal as been to experience beutiful rides, famous climbs and amazing landscapes. That´s what I love about cycling!
With age, I tend to enjoy more the endurance side of the sport.
I find myself now, trying to decide my new bike and having the doubt in my mind:
Should I choose a carbon frame with an entrance level gear (mec. shimano 105), or a aluminium frame with a better gear (di2 105)?
My chalenge for this year is the Vätternrundan in Sweden, a non race, 300 km long. Thats the kind of rider I am 🙂
Again, thank you so much for everything you bring to cycling and hope to continue to watch your contents for many years. 🙂
Great video, very promising and motivating. I'm 52 years old and much prefer longer rides rather than faster rides if and when I get the chance. Really interesting, thank you.
We older ones have been there, done that, seen a lot and are just more stubborn and won't let up. (You called it "age and wisdom" and "dealing with dark moments").
Big plus for covering this – now go out and find a 50+ presenter to broaden GCN's appeal.
I am a non-competitive athlete, I started using the bike to lose weight at 40 and up until 45 I did marathon mountain biking with decent results (hero 86km 4600hm in 6h20) then my bikes were stolen. In August I resumed Milan, Zurich and back, Gotthard and Spluga in 5 days loaded and out of shape Z1/Z2. I have now started training indoors 2 hours a day and 4/6 hours on Sunday. I intend to do the EDT 7600km in July but I would like to try with a decent average speed, I mainly use fat metabolism and little sugar metabolism in Z2. We'll see if I can, maybe I'll update you
Age 68… when I ride with my 22 yo grandson… he’s waiting for me on the first few hills… after 100km I’m ahead (and not waiting 🤣). But I think he has a lot more upside.
And today I celebrated my friend’s 75th birthday with a 75 km ride. I’m looking forward to his 80th!
More time as we get older to train and actually take part?
I'm glad to see Simon found his winterbike in the shed.
60 and bicycled 350 miles in 5 days and never in my life ever did anything close to that before I feel I'm better than ever
GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE AND C AND O CANAL USA
I am 56 years young and most guys in their late 30's and early 40"s have a hard time keeping up with me on the 50 mile harder effort rides….I usually win over the last 8-10 miles
When you are done raising children there is more time and money to go and ride. Having the availability of extra time in the saddle has definitely improved my endurance.
I rode my longest distance ever, of 300km in 10hrs this year at 59. At the end I wish we had planned for more as it would have been well possible to add a few. I have been cycling competitively since I was 10yrs old. Point made.
At 69, I am consistently breaking my PR's. Did my first 75 mile ride at 67, and my 1st century at 68. As long as I train properly, there's no stopping me. Yes, it's true that I can't keep up with younger riders if they want to push, but I can still get close to 400 watts on a sprint. Glad to see this video. It validates my own experience.
Stellar content again Si and gcn! Love the science references embedded in the lived experience of Nick, Mark and yes…Si! Corresponds to my lived experience too on so many of the points. I have found at 65 that I can ride much longer than I ever used to do! I particularly resonate with Nick saying to avoid injury because you can't go hammer and tongs yet you find yourself putting in a slightly lower power level for longer and you pull away. Mark is so right about the mental game!! I find that the wide and varied experience is critical to meeting those seemingly impossible challenges. Remember everyone, the caution, Phil Clavell's Midlife Cyclist warns that you have to avoid overtraining and really temper your efforts if your morning heart rate is elevated. After endurance events/any event we need to build in enough recovery time! Love this content and really appreciate the science!
My most challenging ride is for 26 years now Tilff Bastogne Tilff (155 miles). For about a couple of years I think about doing the 111 miles. 🤔
I completed my first century (miles) ride last year at 58, wind was gusting up to 35mph most of the day but I found my pace and settled into the work and it really wasn’t that hard. I didn’t feel any worse the next day than I would after a 100k ride.
Super interesting Si! Thanks for discussing this topic!
Great video! I guess the question for me is then what is a good training regime for when you get older to optimise the change in your metabolism? More low intensity workouts ?