Renowned cycling biomechanics pioneer, Phil Cavell, explores the growing trend of middle-aged and older cyclists seeking to achieve high-level performance. Using contributions from leading coaches, ex-professionals and pro-team doctors, he produces the ultimate manifesto for mature riders who want to stay healthy, avoid injury – and maximise their achievement levels. There is nothing like competing with your support system within inches. In addition, with technological advances in the virtual cycling game, I communicate with my teammates via Discord. Much the same applies. The race was 50 miles – 50 one-mile laps. Fifty times up Oxo Hill, 50 times around Claries Hairpin – leaning over so far that it felt like your knee would brush the tarmac (I still have the scars from the times that became a reality) – and 50 times up the false flat, eastwards into a headwind, past the start–finish line, clubhouse and spectators. Every time you go above this level, you’re having to use enzymes to break down the excess lactate. Dr Baker's coach’s eye view: ‘If you feel good on an endurance ride, go longer, not harder. Going harder is risky. Going longer is safe. It’s the same with intervals — if you feel good, do an extra rep or two, but don’t increase the power.’

My concern when my clients ride too much indoors is that they are going too hard too much of the time. If the client can afford a temperature-controlled workout space with a huge fan then that is much better. In Chapter 4, entitled Midlife Performance – Too Late for Speed? – the author challenges the tenets of periodization, criticizing its ‘granularity’ and advocating for a reduction in training zones to three or even two. As veteran athletes, we’re completely unique in evolutionary terms– around 6.3 million adults are using cycling for sport and leisure in the UK – with a particularly steep increase in the number of female cyclists. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about what happens when you race-tune the engine of a 50- or 60-year-old to as close to Olympic levels as is currently humanly and scientifically possible. As the clinicians and sports scientists scrabble to catch up with newly commissioned research and data, this exponentially expanding group of women and men relentlessly push themselves further away from the shadow of generations before them, and towards the performance levels associated with professional athletes. I have clients in their late 50s (and even early 60s) who can ride at an average of 50km/h for 16km or more. This requires sustained power outputs significantly north of 300 watts (depending on the individual’s aero efficiency), which is over double the level produced by an average untrained 20-year-old. We ran the Midlife Cyclist Lecture Series in 2017 and 2018 at the Cyclefit store in Covent Garden, London. We had wonderful, warm and generous speakers who contributed for free in the spirit of joint exploration and education – many are featured elsewhere in this book. The lecture slots filled up as soon as they were launched online and then we let people in so they could listen and ask questions. Men, women, mums, dads, grandparents and concerned grown-up children all in search of enlightenment on that key question – can we use the bicycle to simultaneously get fitter and healthier as we get older? Indeed, it’s the humble aim of this book to square that troublesome triangle.

In stark contrast, data was intrinsically dull when I was growing up. It was stored on mainframe computers in bunkers and sat in abstract to the real, vivid and actual world. ‘Data’ is even drab as a word.

Is there a difference between those who've exercised their whole life and those who come to retirement to take up cycling? Are there different challenges and different problems? I am blown away by the level of detail Phil Cavell brings to his work― Elinor Barker MBE, multiple world champion and Olympic gold medallist Make sure your room is not only well ventilated but temperature controlled. You do not want to overheat or dehydrate. But as we age our tolerance for error or injury inevitably reduces – throwing youth at any physical problem is normally the most successful strategy. But when you no longer have access to the elixir of youth, the next best strategy is being well informed about every aspect of your riding practice.Phil and Julian co-founded Cyclefit in Central London over twenty years ago. It was the first company dedicated to dynamic bike-fitting in Europe. A true renaissance man of modern cycling, Mr. Cavell utilizes a holistic approach to bike fit, harnessing the entropic variability of athlete vs. machine and making the analytic an art. The Midlife Cyclist offers a gold standard road-map for the mature cyclist who aims to train, perform and even race at the highest possible level. As a parent, I look at my 11-year old daughter and encourage her to revel in her youth and energy. To run and jump and cycle with glee whenever she can. The author also points to the truism that the challenges we face are primarily caused by “information and moderation deficit.” Mr. Cavell, a lifelong competitive cyclist himself, risks being seen as biased when he asserts that cycling can be “used as a panacea for solving the worst physical and cognitive effects of ageing as an athlete.”