If you haven’t heard of American tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, count yourself lucky. At the same time, we apologise, because this is where your run of fortune ends.
The lengths Johnson is reported to have gone to in an attempt to extend his time on earth include a daily cocktail of 91 pills and supplements, and six-monthly infusions of plasma 'donated' by his son.
To measure his progress, the 48-year-old regularly has his organs tested, and recently estimated the 'biological age' of his brain to have fallen to 42 (he’s 48).
We think he’d be better off – in all senses of that phrase – riding a bike. “No matter how much we tinker with the natural ageing and dying process, biology will eventually win… nothing stops the ageing process,” writes Ken Hillman, professor of intensive care at the University of New South Wales, in his book, A Good Life to the End.
As much as Johnson might attempt to engineer otherwise, ageing itself is not something we can do much about. How we experience ageing, however, is very much in our power to affect.
MAMILS mocked
Cyclists are frequently mocked for the symptoms of our obsession. Some we can hardly complain about, even as we might (reasonably) defend the Lycra aesthetic on grounds of practicality.
Others feel rather more cruel. You may have seen a cartoon that did the rounds last year. Born from the brain of American illustrator Vaughan Tomlinson, it depicts a man bestride a racing bike.
In the foreground, a woman kneels next to their child. The caption reads: “I’m sorry, honey, but your father is 40 now. It’s either this or he accepts that he wasted his youth on a pointless job he hates and goes on to find real purpose in life. Or pickleball.”
Indeed, as a punchline of the male midlife crisis, taking up cycling has, in recent years, practically surpassed a sports car purchase.
No-one disputes the biological – and indeed, life-extending – benefits of bike riding. That it makes you physically healthier is beyond the pushback of even the most anti-cyclist. Many non-practitioners, however, still treat this pastime as an unhealthy psychological response to the inevitable passage of time.
However, what if it’s the opposite? What if cycling, rather than being harmful to our psyches, can better help us come to terms with getting older?
Few of us actively enjoy the experience of ageing. The most widely spoken of symptoms are those of diminishment: whether it’s our hair turning grey, or falling out; lines appearing around our eyes, which themselves don’t work as well as they used to; aches and pains resulting from such wild exertions as sneezing; having to rise multiple times in the middle of the night to use the loo…
Similarly, there is a tendency to fixate on what we physically can’t do, or can’t do as well, and the ways in which things are only going to get harder and worse.
Shift in perspective
Adopting a positive attitude to ageing, says Berit Lewis, requires a person to flip that focus on its head. The author of Ageing Upwards says we should ask ourselves: "What can I do now? Because there's so many things you can do now that you couldn't when you were younger. You know yourself better, you know what you're capable of, and you know what matters to you.”
As a Danish transplant to the Netherlands, Lewis has first-hand experience of the merits of a cycling culture.
The average older Dutch adult (aged 66–89) now cycles for 323 minutes (nearly five and a half hours) per week.
Everyday cycling may not be 'normal' in the UK to the same extent as the Netherlands, but you don’t have to cross the North Sea to witness older people reaping the myriad advantages of two-wheeled leisure and athletic pursuits.
How many of us have experience of being passed up a gruelling ascent by someone in their 70s or 80s, still in the saddle and comfortably in the big ring of a steel-framed bike they bought before we were born?
Level playing field
Save for the elite, cyclists simply don’t slow down, or at least lose their capacity to keep up, as quickly as other athletes.
In fact, it’s perfectly possible to get faster. Giles Barnard, a 57-year-old cyclist from South London, says he is “much stronger and more powerful” than he was 10 years ago.
“I think I can give people who are 45 a good go for their money,” he adds. “Not every 40-year-old, but a fair few, which makes you feel good.”
That is in no small part due to having more time to devote to his hobby – children having grown up, working less – and cycling being an activity that rewards persistence.
As the actor and comedian Dylan Moran put it in one of his stand-up routines: “The thing about potential is no-one knows how much of it they've got.”
That’s true of all but elite athletes, who devote their lives to getting as close to that self-knowledge as possible.
As age-related drop-off most dramatically affects potential rather than actual performance, and as few amateurs are anywhere near that point, we can maintain or even improve our level deep into our later years.
In contrast, “over a certain age you're just not going to be playing football very well,” says Mark Lloyd. As well as a competitive amateur road and track cyclist, the 63-year-old coaches long distance runners to a high level.
“I couldn't run with a 40-year-old – they'd smash me,” he says, “whereas I could probably go for an easy – well, it'd be hard for us – ride with a pro. And that ability to cross over is unique to cycling.”
It’s partly, he says, “the physics”, which is a great equaliser across age brackets, because it means “you can sit on a wheel and not have to do any work, or you can limit the amount of work you do”.
Which doesn’t mean you can shirk completely. Consistency, he says, is crucial to accruing and maintaining the gains.
To that you can credit the relatively low injury rate of cyclists – 2.81 per 100,000 participants per year – despite its widespread perception as a dangerous activity.
Whereas runners pick up injuries just by taking part, cycling “is a great sport for the older athlete because you're not pounding on the ground all the time. You don't get the impact.”
Additionally, Lloyd says, “you can recover on a bike much more easily than you can recover from running. You can do a hard ride on Wednesday morning and be fine to go again on Friday.”
Joining the club
At a time when articles about the 'male loneliness epidemic' are in the press practically every week, deriding (mostly) men of a certain age for engaging in an activity that affords peer connection is misguided.
“You get past a certain point in life where you don't see your friends quite as much,” Lloyd says. “You'll settle down so you don't go to the pub as often, and [other] gatherings of like-minded men can be hard to come by… so if you can put some men together, then I think you're doing a good thing.”
Lewis agrees that as we age, “remaining social is very important.” She notes that “in order to be social, men [typically] need to have something to be social about. They don't just go out for a coffee like women do.”
Cycling is especially conducive to a male-suited form of socialisation. Riding alongside someone, allowing for non-awkward silences while you concentrate on the road ahead, can be more comfortable than sitting across a table from each other.
Riding alone can be similarly good for older people’s mental health: an escape from screens, and allowing part of the brain time to conduct background processes, while the rest concentrates on staying upright and moving forward.
Fun factor
Finally, there’s a little thing called 'fun'. A UCL study in 2014 found “positive hedonic states, life evaluation, and eudemonic wellbeing” (achieving a sense meaning and self-realisation) in your 50s can lead to “long-term vitality”.
The study concluded that “health-care systems should be concerned not only with illness and disability, but also with supporting methods to improve positive psychological states”. What is that if not a prescription for some two-wheeled tomfoolery?
Phil Wright, a 62-year-old actor and part-time cycling coach, puts it more succinctly: “Playing keeps you young! Cycling gives you a positive angle on ageing."
“I've always said it’s like fantasy role play. I watch cyclocross and then pretend to be Mathieu van der Poel, trying to copy what he’s been doing. To be doing that as an old person, it’s like the imagination games you play when you're under 10, isn't it?”
If you’re happier for it, and living better, what’s wrong with sprinting for town signs while imagining you’re in the Tour de France?
Non-converts can ridicule cyclists all they like. It has to be more fun than harvesting your offspring’s essence, though.
