Age differences in cycling

Theomerchant

I have been road cycling for just under a year now (having previously raced downhill mtb for about 10 years), I have noticed a signifigant age gap in the world of road cycling.

I am 25 and after going out on a number of club runs and doing 5 sportives last year I have noticed that the majority of road cyclist are older rather than younger or the same age as myself?.

I dont have a problem at all with this as I tend to get on quite well with the older generation on club rides as the older guys can give good advice from experience (and I haven't had the chance to ride with younger riders so couldn't comment).

I was just wondering why there are so many more older cyclists (35+) and where are all the younger guys?...is the road cycling world like the german town in chitty chitty bang bang where no childeren are allowed and kept in a dungeon under the local track

any ideas!?.

Dancing Bear

perhaps the reason is more simple - most club runs are 9 am or 10 am kick off on a saturday morning, so any 'fun-loving 18-30yr old is either still in bed nursing a sore head from last night, wondering who the girl next to him is, or bent double over the bathroom porcelain

I have found that as you get older your capacity, and desire for the morning after the night before syndrome fades and you can get up and cycle on a saturday morning - for the 18-30's does saturday morning exist?

Tom Butcher

Downhill is probably like football - once you get past a certain age your body starts telling you it's time to give up - road cycling suits my knees.

Most over 40 men probably grew up riding road bikes in their teens too - when I was a teenager that was just the sort of bike you had.......plus we are obviously naturally harder than the younger generation having grown up climbing trees and kicking a football about on the local rec rather than sitting in front of a PlayStation.

Theomerchant

In reply to the above posts, I dont know if I am the extreme exception but being 25 it wasnt so long ago that I was a teenager..granted between the ages of 17 and 22ish I was partial to the odd drink but this never stopped me from getting up early to travle to my race meets on a sunday morning.

In regards to the playstation generation I have never had the luxury of owning a game console...I do enjoy playing on them as I have had ago on my friends, but saying that I much prefer to be outside wether its walking with my wife...yes my wife at 25 or out on my bike.

I can understand that there a lot of people of my age that would prefer to sit inside on a sunny day playing the mongconsole than to be outside wether it be getting healthy or not, but it does annoy me when people assume that all people my age are layabouts...mainly becuase I would hate to be pidgeon holed into this category.

Anyway...lay of the kids...we aint all that bad!

pbt150

I'm 24 myself, and have quite a few mates my age who cycle too. It could be that the younger cyclists near you ride on their own or with a Uni club, rather than come down to an open club run?

Cycling is also a pretty expensive hobby, and your average MAMIL probably has more disposable income to spend on his hobby than a teenager or someone in their early 20s.

Smokin Joe

Cycling has always had a bit of an age gap. Clubs tend to have plenty of juniors under 18 and very few if any between that age and early thirties where membership picks up again. It is a demanding sport and once people get into serious boozing and skirt chasing cycling takes a back seat. The ones in the missing age gap who do stick with it are mostly the highly talented racing guys.

pneumatic

It was simple for me. Once I could afford a car (aged 24), I stuck the bike in the back of the garage until I realised the value of what I had given up (aged 37) :oops:

stevec205gti

I think a lot of it has to do with other halves! Most people in their very late teens and up through their 20's are getting loved up and having kids. Then you start to get to an age were the family members are grown up and starting to do their own thing, so parents can start doing what they want again,

Monty Dog

The biggest age-groups in events is 40+, which of course also has something to do with post-war baby boomers, which peaked in 1965. Cycling also benefits older riders as your stamina improves but and you can still maintain the speed. People's careers and family commitments obviously get in the way from the late 20s through their 30s and it's usually the expanding waistline and a mid-life crisis that forces people to do something about it!

chrishd883

As well as the availability of time and or money older people may turn to cycling because it is easy on the bdy - being a non impact sport.

I turned to cycling after giving up weekly5-a-side with my workmates.

Having seen many of them go under the knife (knee op's) and having had a few ankle injuries myself, it was time to call it a day before my knees picked up a cruciate ligament injury or something similar.

There seems to be a trend for older runners to move over to cycling as well - again due to the low / non impact nature of cycling.

Theomerchant

Hum I think in that case im going to have to convince a few of my friends of a similar age to get into road cycling.

I understand about the fact of the age gap being because of commitments for people my age, I am recently married and have a little boy due anyday now but my wife is still ok for me to get out whenever possible (Im very lucky) and I work full time!!.

I have also noticed that anyone who rides that is a similar age to me are racing types who can leave me for dust on a club run so I think I might up my speed (wish it was that easy).

Bloody kids these days and their drinking

Tom Butcher

I don't think kids/work/relationships is the issue. I'd guess that more 35/40 year olds have youngish kids than 20/25 year olds and can't see that things would differ that much with relationships and work. I really think it's more to do with people realising they've got to do something to keep fit and football/rugby/martial arts etc being more suited to younger bodies.

I came to cycling in my mid 30s after playing football for years and then a few years running - I reckon that's a fairly common route into it. I know a fair few guys who have done a little bit of running first and then found they preferred the bike.

wiffachip

so basically, we'd all rather be playing football, but our knees would rather be cycling

if only we'd known this earlier, we could have struck a happy medium and played football a lot longer

which would be nice

cycling's great, football's better

petemadoc

12-17 your ride you bike everywhere to get around. Probably a mountain bike cos that's what everyone gets and you can go anywhere on it and do some silly stuff in the disused quarry nearby.

17-25 you get a car, drive everywhere and forget about your bike. You drink too much and have loads of fun.

25-30 you start to settle down, work, marriage, kids take over

30-35 you get a bit of a belly and think sh1t I'm turning into a lard ar5e. Do something about it, maybe the gym but then you get a new bike cos you loved it when you were younger.

35-40 you've got more disposable income and get a better bike (and all the stuff that goes with it). You realise it's great fun and a great way to have some "me" time and it keeps the lardy ar5e away

40+ carry on cycling

That's my theory

I'm 28 so this is all just a guess

SteveR_100Milers

Theomerchant wrote:

I have been road cycling for just under a year now (having previously raced downhill mtb for about 10 years), I have noticed a signifigant age gap in the world of road cycling.

I am 25 and after going out on a number of club runs and doing 5 sportives last year I have noticed that the majority of road cyclist are older rather than younger or the same age as myself?.

I dont have a problem at all with this as I tend to get on quite well with the older generation on club rides as the older guys can give good advice from experience (and I haven't had the chance to ride with younger riders so couldn't comment).

I was just wondering why there are so many more older cyclists (35+) and where are all the younger guys?...is the road cycling world like the german town in chitty chitty bang bang where no childeren are allowed and kept in a dungeon under the local track

any ideas!?.

You are not comparing alike that's why. Go to a RR or a track league, you'll see what I mean. The older you get the more likely you are to time trial; but club runs and sportives are not racing by any means (though cyclists that race and are good ride them).

chrishd883

SteveR_100Milers - good point, well made.

But I still think that the "average" cyclist is older these days.
Seems to be the same with motorcycling as well!
Maybe, partly, for the same reasons (i.e. time, money etc - not bad knees!! : )
Although it didn't seem like that when I was riding around on two petrol driven wheels!!

millimole

I'd largely agree with PeteMadoc, exxcept that the kids take over for a longer period, and it's 40+ when you realise that you're a lard-arse.
I've been a cyclist since the early 1970s and certainly the low (activity) points were just after I married (22-28) and when the kids were growing up, and requiring attention and money (25-40). It's only in late 40s I have had the disposable income for spending on 'good stuff' - and TBH fashion and expensive gear wasn't as important a few decades ago - we just rode our bikes!

Stone Glider

The "average age" of everything is getting greater. As the population ages and the 'grey pound' is increasingly important older people form a larger proportion of lots of things. My grandparents' generation did not expect to live much past 65, my parents hoped for more but had little money to deploy beyond subsistance. Now an active old age is expected.

However, as has been previously stated, the OP is looking in the wrong places for youngsters.

Airwave

If you go back 15-20yrs the vast majority of people entering TTs were seniors with just a few veterans.But know its completely reverse& the vast majority are veterans.So something changed.Is it that younger riders are not as interested in TTing&are MTB instead&will TTs become a lot less popular in 20yrs.

Pross

In my area there are loads of youth riders doing racing (cross, circuits and track). It seems to tail off as they reach junior categories and there aren't that many in their early 20s around as other distractions cut in (booze, girls and cars). In the 30s a lot of people have young families and so lack the time required and there is now a very strong veterans scene (something like 4 of the first 6 in the Welsh Champs were veterans :shock: ). I started riding at 17 and combined racing with the other teenage past times which probably stopped me being at the level I could have been, I stopped in my mid 20s due to marriage, kids etc. and started back last year in my late 30s. I think this is fairly typical other than I may have done the kids bit a bit younger than a lot - there are a lot of other people I used to race with just starting back again.

rick_chasey

I found the same.

When I used to turn up to the Cambridge club occasionally, I was often the youngest or 2nd youngest (one kid there was 15...) at around 20, with the next youngest nearer 30.

Having said that, the older the guys, usually, the better they were on the group rides.

Sure they can't sprint or accelerate very quickly, but f*ck me, 30 years + of proper cycling makes their standard pace ridiculously fast.