[Closed] Age / Speed. At what age do you generally peak and start going slower?

My speed is affected by many things - health, available riding time, training (occasionally!) and injuries. Probably last on the list is age and I am in my 40s too.

Yes, weight is part of that too, but that goes down a little bit with lots of riding, so it's only a factor of point 2 for me I reckon. I also wasn't cycling much in my 20s. Just commuting as I was climbing all the time back then. So I guess my speed comparison only goes back to my 30's.

Weight is definitely a factor on hills, four years ago I lost 20Kg and hills became a lot easier.

Somewhere around the mid to late 20's is maximum strength/speed, after that you are on the downward slope but for a good few years experience will help you mask it - look at the ages of recent TdF winners for example. I'm nowhere near as fast as I was in my 20's (I'm 58 in a couple of weeks) but I wouldn't expect to be. I am noticing a slight slow down over the last couple of years as well.

Have a look at Joe Friel's blog and books about training/performance for the older cyclist.

Thanks for the tip about Joe Friel - will check it out later!

At 49 I'm at my fastest so far, although in my case that's because I was horribly overweight and unfit for the previous 25 years.

I suspect I'd have been a lot faster than I am now when I was in my late teams and early 20's but I wasn't cycling then so have nothing to compare my current performance with.

If you're comparing to others, peak is irrelevant, it's just fitness. I know XC racer types in their 60s and they're bloody fast!

My potential peak was probably in 20s or 30s, but I was very unfit back then so I never really hit it. I'm fitter now. Maybe there's a age peak to be had still, but had I actually been active back then I'd probably have hit my true peak back then.

Not that I really care. So long as I can keep going until I drop. Only thing age is telling me is stuff is dangerous, and I take less risks. So I may be getting less quick downhill (never was quick though anyway), but I'm getting faster on the flat and uphill. Just purely through fitness by just riding a lot.

Im a big chap too, which does limit speed uphill, also i dont ride that often, but when i go out in a mixed group im not last.
Probably 2 or 3 peeps behind me, in a group of a dozen or so.
I do try to think of the impact a big off would have on my life though, im 48 and have noticed I don't recover as easily as i used to.
Im the oldest in the group I ride with.

I'm 52 and can still keep up with the faster guys - I was having an uphill sprint with a 17 year-old and he only edged me because I was on fixed and ran out of gears.

I probably don't have the same 'snap' as my younger years, but endurance is better. Lots of research suggest that provided you don't stop / reduce your training you can still maintain your strength and power.

/me makes note not to race dovebiker...

One thing I have noticed: it's not so much the effort of riding but the recovery that's changed.

On a climb if there was even the slightest easing in angle for a few metres then I used to be able to use it to recover, I can't do that any more. Similarly if I do a big ride (I'm into ITTs so 100 miles or more) then I take a long time to recover.

Conversely I know my body better so can measure my efforts so that I don't go into the red and can do steady efforts day after day.

45, not yet.

you are past it soz

30 next month, am I doomed?

whitestone - Member

One thing I have noticed: it's not so much the effort of riding but the recovery that's changed.

On a climb if there was even the slightest easing in angle for a few metres then I used to be able to use it to recover, I can't do that any more. Similarly if I do a big ride (I'm into ITTs so 100 miles or more) then I take a long time to recover.

THis has hit me in a big way recently, two years ago I used to be able to race Sunday, do a hard ride on Tuesday, not a chance now. I'm only in my mid thirties!

Very few will be able to compare themselves to the best they could have ever been.
I started riding a bike again about 10 years a go. From just riding to build up a knee after surgery, to them carrying on to lose some weight ... and enjoying it more, and now just trying to hang with the fast boys in the club.

I feel now at the age of 46 I am still improving. Physically my body may be showing wear and tear, and have its limitations ... but experience of knowing what works best for my body has been able to compensate for this.

42 and my speed is mainly limited by my muscles, lungs and my testicle size lol.

@ferrals - there may be a case for recovery taking longer than thought in younger riders as well, it's just that it gets shrugged off and you go for it.

One of the take home points from Joe Friel is to do high intensity training on a regular basis as this will help maintain muscle mass - it's the gradual loss of this that is the cause of reduced performance. Going from memory (I'd have to read the JF book again): it's not entirely clear what causes muscle mass to reduce with age but it's relatively consistent between athletes and non-athletes, obviously the athletes have more MM but the rate of decline is similar.

THis has hit me in a big way recently, two years ago I used to be able to race Sunday, do a hard ride on Tuesday, not a chance now. I'm only in my mid thirties!

45 - Took me until Wednesday for my legs to recover from BoB - I genuinly thought I had a leg virus.

Kryton, if that's Battle on the Beach then yeah. 45 here too, did both Battle races, had Monday off and Tuesday night did my first ever TT. So at least? I've set the bar low 😀

Cyclist magazine did an article about this recently - think they said mid 40s, and losing bone density is also an issue which isn't addressed by cycling as it's low impact.

39 for me. but it might have been all the coke speed ephedrine and mdma i was doing back then 😉

id say im faster now although endurance seems to have gone off a cliff

In my 30's, riding faster than my 20's. Twice in the last year I have been overtaken at speed by riders in their 50s / 60s. On both occasions the rider was on high end carbon, pushing harder than me, in great shape and loving their day.

Looked like good diet, training and willing to push hard beyond what I would do were big contributors. Seems to be an American thing...

Makes me smile / feel a little embarrassed whenever it happens.

Only slower in some places because my judgement/reactions/responses have slowed down

Find it hard to ride through narrow tree gaps without easing off and tend to over-corner on corners. Can handle short sections of ugliness but sustained sections have me backing right off.

On the other hand from a fitness pov I've really found out what make me tick and reading through my riding diaries from the late 90s I'm better than I used to be so it's not all gloom and doom

I vaguely remember reading that the Army reckon 26 is the peak age for combat troops.

The high intensity bit is interesting above to keep muscle mass

I've always been a steady rider - bought a garmin and HR monitor belt to see how hard I should be pushing when out with some (younger / lighter) fitter friends.

I can do zone 1,2,3 all day long but really struggle to get into zone 4.

Perhaps I need to have my HR measured properly rather than the 220 minus my age?

Perhaps I need to have my HR measured properly rather than the 220 minus my age?

It can be pretty far out. Using that formula my max HR should be 171 but in reality it's more like 185.

Look out for;

Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life
Book by Joe Friel

Which I've seen recommended here. I've read his other book Faster which was a very good read. Didn't make me any quicker though!

One of the take home points from Joe Friel is to do high intensity training on a regular basis as this will help maintain muscle mass - it's the gradual loss of this that is the cause of reduced performance.

I think the HIIT stuff is more about maintaining VO2 Max than muscle mass. For that he suggests activity-relevant strength training, weights etc. In a nut-shell, what Friel says is that your VO2 Max inevitably falls off as you age, but a combination of intense sessions, strength training and optimum recovery makes a big difference. And recovery slows down as you age, so your ability to recover from those intense sessions falls off compared to when you were younger.

What's interesting is that there's a whole new generation of athletes who've trained and competed for their entire lives pretty much and are still going strong. What's 'normal' is evolving. People like Ned Overend are re-writing what people think is possible.

Anyway, the Friel book - Fast After 50 - is interesting if you want to be old and quick 🙂

When I was getting into XC racing, I learnt the hard way - beware the old guy in lycra!

For the majority of riders I think age is less important and fitness is simply a result of time/effort put in. Unless you're elite type level but guess most riders aren't.

The fitest I've been was when I turned 16, racing track at national level. Then a serious motorbike accident stopped me riding properly for a year and never had the motivation to train that hard again so never been that fit again. My record at 15 was a 23.09 10TT, never been close to that since, not that I've tried either TBH.

I'm now 44 and been riding properly again for the last 10 years I'm starting to regain near the sort of form I was nearly 30 years ago! Main difference is that now with a family time on bike is limited and 30 years ago it was all I did, everyday!

Personally I have found the Chris Carmichael Time Crunched Cyclist approah to be very helpful and effective, focussing on power and not heart rate. For training 4 times a week and for at a minimum of 6 hours in total I can complete at a reasonable level. I'll never win but given the hours input I'm very happy with the placements and results, and just my overall riding fitness having no problem banging out a 5 hours 100km XC race etc.

Theoretical peak is mid 20's, but pretty common in biking to see riders turning out their best performances in early 30's.

For me I didn't even start biking (properly) until I was 29, today age 36 and still improving. I certainly don't really view anything under 50 as much of a barrier in endurance sports these days.

i'm 47... when i was 44/45 i was fitter and faster (relative to nothing but myself) than when i was 24/25. a function of riding volume, intensity and finally getting a few years of decent rides into me that taught me how to ride and recover. 2/3 years later, a bit heavier, two boys aged 4 and 7 that demand and deserve a decent bit of my time, and a bit of atrial fibrillation thrown into the mix these last two years, and it's very much damage limitation and now into some sort of re-build.

the flipside to this is a guy i know in his mid-50's, who i was 'beating' in rides/sportives (all relative don't forget) is now doing stuff i couldn't even contemplate at my 'fittest'. his is a function of available time (older kids), commitment, club mates and so on.

not sure I have answered a question? seeing 'old' people riding around here in Yorkshire is both inspiring and terrifying, but it never seems 'too late' to get better. I see groups of 50/60 even 70 years olds on and off road. i saw a couple on a tandem near Bolton Abbey last weekend who must have had a combined age north of 200...

I'm 57 and I think I've hit a plateau. I kept getting faster until a couple of years ago, but the PRs are rare these days. I'm pretty sure that if I could get a bit more time on the bike I could be faster again, but my job makes that a bit difficult.
On the Max HR question, 220 - 57 would give me 163, but it's been 186 for at least the last 10 years.

I'm fitter (faster) now at 39 than I was at 29 - due to a number of factors.

But on the flip side probably more risk adverse than I was at 19 but a better, less injured rider.

43 next month and off-road I've definitely peaked - too scared of falling off.
Fitnesswise, I train with a lot of younger lads racing junior or U23 so have a fairly consistent benchmark, and haven't noticed any real decline (not training quite as much as previous years, currently about 15h/wk, but that's coz I don't really want to). However a couple of weeks off the bike costs me more than it used to.

I'd be really interested to see if the relatively unfit 23-year-old me could beat the relatively fit 43-year-old me.

Future generations will be able to answer this question via Strava.

I've been spanked at hill races by people who look old enough to be my grandparents.

I reckon (based on pure observation, no science) if you keep at it all your life you keep most of your stamina, if not strength.

If your average 70-odd year old who wasn't already fit tried to take up running/cycling they'd probably just die though...

43, and and faster than i have ever been overall, but not as fit (think my peak fitness was prob aged 36/37). Faster because i am more skillfull now, and my bike is a lot better than ever before!

If your overweight that will slow you down more.

I'd say I'm fitter now as I have more time to ride than when I was younger in my 40's. 60 next year, 296 FTP. No issues up or down but as above if your overweight that's the issue not age related slowing down. You loose strength yes but retain your endurance. So you work on power gaining more/retaining strength.

You also should eat more protein and rest more as an older athlete

49 and never been faster nor fitter. Always been fit always cycled. Only started competitively at 45. I've never trained harder, but recovery is important. Riding 14 hrs a week and 400 km. I take every fourth week as a rest week (half volume) and at least one day off the bike completely. I'd have probably got to this level faster had I been younger, but no signs of slowing yet.

There are some VERY fast vets about.

For running there are the WAVA tables, which suggest that performance drops off very little in 40s, more rapidly in 50s. For cycling, the vet standards for time trials serve the same function. I'm still getting faster as a runner (late 40s) and plan to test myself with a few TTs, expect to be only marginally slower than I was in my 20s.

Vets have always done pretty well at MTBO events (typically 5h).

Conclusion: there's no reason to go significantly downhill until at least 50 or beyond, with training effort (and injury/illness) being much more important than age.

In the 50s and later there's a very clear drop-off in running performance. I beat every 55+yo in the Manchester marathon last sunday - and last year too IIRC - but was well outside top 10 in my own (45-49) age group.

Ned has some good tips here:

I've noticed that rule 3 in particular applies - I can't have a couple of months off over Christmas now I'm 40 without facing an uphill battle to get back to my racing weight.

But 40 yr old me would have beaten 20 yr old me over a long distance. Maybe not in a sprint.

This has been my experience and I recommend older athlete's read this:

http://blog.trainerroad.com/how-aging-athletes-can-get-faster/

I'd say that apart from weight the key points have been:

good diet, high protein
high intensity work outs (turbo, road hills)
rest and recovery with some periodization and adaptive time
practice skills for MTB riders

Warning signs for the older athlete? Simple, over training and lack of recovery. You keep going out and your not at your best results in junk miles.

I'm be 65 in a few weeks and I'm probably riding as well, or better, now than at any time in the last twenty years. I'm certainly a lot better technical rider, partly because the bikes that I ride now are more suited to that and partly because I've kind of singled that out as something that I want to do as well as I possibly can.
I like to climb but, as I don't race now, (or give a toss about Strava) I get my satisfaction from being able to clean difficult stuff that will see a lot of people pushing, rather than absolute speed.

I'm just an old ex-m/cycle trials rider - I never really think of myself as a proper cyclist, just someone who likes riding off-road and in places that I couldn't get away with anymore on a trials bike.

Based on my experience of riding in a similar pattern and similar distances over the last 10+ years I have got slightly slower since 45.

Not sure how fast I was before that as didn't record it.

I have never trained/started training so that doesn't skew the data.

my understanding is that you do peak in late twenties, early thirties but as I imagine most of the people here have never hit their peak performance or generally anywhere near then you are still able to gain improvements in your own performance into your later years.

This is especially true of more endurance sports with less explosive power.

@ajf - true but then cycling wasn't my main sport until I was over 50. I did cycle mainly commuting and occasional weekend rides but mostly I was out climbing.

For the majority of riders I think age is less important and fitness is simply a result of time/effort put in.

This.

Beware the guys who took early(ish) retirment and train full time(ish). They're gettign faster and doing some crazy long/ fast rides into their late 50s/ 60s.

When I started at 26 I was pretty fit but lacked skill and experience. I'm now 43 and lack that level of fitness, but I'm substantially more experienced and skillful, even compared to 4 years ago.

My 26 year old self is only likely to out pace me on non technical climbs.

It's moot really, I ride for shits and giggles rather than competition.

My times have remained pretty much the same over the years, I may have been a bit quicker five or so years ago when I was running and taking PT sessions two or three times a week. These days I do yoga alongside mountain biking which I don't believe trains the body for speed particularly well. Anyway, I just took a look at my lap time for the Cafall trail at Cwmcarn and I'm in the top 10% of all riders, so not doing too bad still at 48yrs old this year.

My Current Place
523 / 5968
My Best Time
1:15:28

just seen that time was two yrs ago so would have been 46 then.

Some interesting responses here!

For the avoidance of doubt - speed is not the only thing that is important, but with the ease of measuring rides / segments etc this is as much about expectation setting as a thirst for knowledge

Seems my speediest days may be yet to come! (With a little reading and application)

I think as an adult amateur cyclist with a typical life, you get 2 opportunities to be fast: before kids and after they've passed 15 or so, i.e. when you have the time to do more. Course, if you've no kids, or a very understanding spouse, ...

I pissed away my "before kids" opportunity but at 52 I'm doing more riding now than ever and I've also lost weight due to being put on the diabetic naughty-step (no more pudding for me 🙁 )

Reckon I could kick my younger self's arse pretty much anywhere except maybe in a very short sprint