Today it took my atention this message that someone left on youtube:
"today i raced sean kelly cycling legend in ras na turcai in ireland im a senior 1 highest category in irish cycling and im a good biker. sean kelly killed me in the sprint at 51 yrs of age and im 21, i was ashamed at first but then realised he was a great cyclist, people say these men are on drugs, are you tellingme that a 51 yr old man in ireland who looks like a farmer is on drugs dream on just like lance these men are born great and forever stay great."
It is incredible that 50 year-old riders can still ride strong. I guess it still depends on the training. Kelly must still be riding. Here in Spain, another old man that goes out with his bike Delgado. He looks great and is almost 50. However there are others than can barely ride. Indurain for example is said to have abandoned his cyclotoruist race (named after him) this year after the first climb, a few kilometers at slow pace with the main group and then turned around and went home. 🙁
Kelly is still training and he still rides a lot of events mostly charity/touring events, it has to be said.
Last year, I took part in a touring event which Kelly was in. Kelly and a group of what we would call elite cyclists (amateur national tour rider/winners) came by our group and literally blasted us off the route. Included in his group was a 64 year old former multi national Irish tour winner. I see Kelly out pedalling on mnay weekends on the roads between Carrick and Limerick.
I'm not surprised to read of these guys still pedalling. As you say Delgado is still riding (isn't there an annual Delgado grandfondo in Segovia, each year?).
I saw Indurain at the 2004 Etape - he looked to be labouring and he ended up abandoning! maybe he just wasn't bothered (although he did look to be in pretty good condition).
I would reckon most ex-pros would wipe the floor with the majority of cyclists. Muscle memory alone would make them far stronger than many riders.
Yes, there is cicloturist event every year, (like we say in Spain prueba cicloturista) named after Delgado. It is not competitive, and everybody can participate as it costs only a few euros but it is extremely hard, with 4 climbs around Segovia and Madrid, two of them first category climbs. Delgado is always there.
Indurain doesn't look bad but since he retired he hasn't been very active. I think he has problems with his knees but I'm not sure.
As for Kelly, he was a warrior and will always be until the end of his days. I always wondered if he could be even better had he raised his saddle a couple of centimenters!! 🙂 I don't think his position in the bike was ever correct.
I was in Italy this year riding with Andrea Tafi. The road went up, and he said lets go. So I kept up with him for about 200 meters, then I blew, and he started to push me and laugh. Right then the cops pulled up to harass him, and he took his hands off the bars, started arguing (in the Italian, where you need both hands and need to yell) with the cops, and proceeded to pull away from me as the climb continued.
I am 40 years old, am 6'2 and 165lbs, and was in decent shape, but there is a world of difference.
I was in the Pyrennes this year on holiday. At the hotel in which we were staying, we met a couple from Aus. and their kids.
The father of the Aus. family was telling me that last year he had been on a Pyrennian touring event with Phil Anderson, the first Aussie to wear the maillot jeune. Anderson does these regular events with groups, mostly from Aus. Again, same story. A couple of wannabe riders tried to put the pressure on at the front of the group and Anderson, riding at the back, decided to blast past the chancers.
My Aus. friend did remark that Anderson's legs looked disproprtionately bigger than the rest of his body. He said it was comical to be cycling behind Anderson - looking at two slabs of thighs rotating the pedals!
The Big Mig might not have finished his own sportive but he did ride each stage in the Tour of Ibiza event in October (3 days). He stretched his legs a few times to show he still had a fair bit of pace. I think he also rode one or two events in the Canary islands.
His own sportive is tough with a lot of climbing and it is normally in extremely hot conditions. Some friends went up to do it this year and were disappointed that he didn't show up for the dinner afterwards either. I think he might have been in France for some media work to do with the TdF.
On a similar theme, a few of us went to the Albacete area to do the Oscar Sevilla sportive and he didn't appear either -- too busy with Rock racing in the USA. It was still a good day but the marketing is a bit of a con if the star doesn't show up!
