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84 year old man sets Hour record - despite having twice broken a hip

Sidney Schuman took up track cycling in May - and now holds a world record

An 84-year-old man who has twice broken his hip has broken the Hour record for his age, smashing past 28km - 114 laps of the track - beating the first ever record set in 1876.

Sidney Schuman from Hither Green has been cycling since the age of 11 and took up track cycling in May after a taster session at Lee Valley VeloPark. He began on a bike given to him by his cousin, who decided cycling was not for him.

Since then he has been training for a world record attempt for the 80-84 age group, which he achieved last night at the VeloPark, although the official distance has not yet been confirmed.

The record is officiated by international cycling governing body UCI and has never been attempted for this age category. Robert Marchand set the record for the over 100 age group, which Sidney has beaten (perhaps not surprising, as Marchand is old enough to be his dad!).
Marchand broke his own record in January when he rode 26.925km at the age of 102.

There was a small but noisy crowd cheering him on. He was so knackered he hit one of the sleepers at the bottom of the track during his warm-down, but was apparently unhurt

Before the attempt Sidney told the News Shopper: “I can’t contemplate a life without a bicycle, it’s the greatest invention known to man.

“There are a lot of guys my age, who are a lot fitter than me, and I think it’s a great way of letting people know, that just because you’re older doesn’t mean you can’t do things, that make you feel good.”

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7 comments

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Leviathan | 9 years ago
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I'd like to see a graph of the age and speed of the best hour records; so I can tell how long I will have to live to finally stand a chance of doing this.

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Leviathan | 9 years ago
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I'd like to see a graph of the age and speed of the best hour records; so I can tell how long I will have to live to finally stand a chance of doing this.

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antonio | 9 years ago
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Great ride, and the lesson is you love your bike even more the older you get.

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steviewevie | 9 years ago
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Fantastic! Superb achievement.

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BarefootBrian | 9 years ago
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I would struggle to that distance in an hour, and I'm not yet 68. Makes me think I should start traiing more seriously and even do a session at a velodrome. (Will have to try that option on my TACX turbo trainer to see what it's like)

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Bob's Bikes | 9 years ago
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Cyclist Staying awesome  41  41  41

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jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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Great achievement for the old fella. I was there and "small but vocal crowd" was bang on.

I happened to be on the side where he fell after the end of the hour; he scraped his shins falling after a track sleeper got caught in the front wheel and we were very worried for a minute but hopefully he's ok this morning.

Inspirational - he's 50 years older than me and I'm not sure I'd be that much faster over an hour!

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