The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society March 2017, Volume 34, Issue #3
President’s Report John Pringle
“Winter business is near finished; weeds have been pulled – new shoots are appearing”
The Board has been busy: We’ve developed an ambitious set of tours/hub & spokes; postponed a long standing Special General Meeting; we are in the process of bidding Karelo adieu; and, expanded the Website in a most meaningful way. More information follows.
2017 Program. Well folks “Three Cheers!” to both our major Events Directors, Charlene Dorward (H&S) and Bruce Daykin (Tours) and the 2017 Event Leaders (Dick & Elaine Carpenter, Brigitte Relling & Doug McIntyre, Delores Franz Loz, Brian Collier, Rick Mathias, Geoff Kennedy & Don Taylor, Nel Ahmed, Marg Hurley, Allan Buium, Charlene Dorward and Alex Laird). Our event leaders have been creative (i.e. National Capital Region H&S coincidental with both the July 1st, 2017 and the sesquicentennial celebrations); Croatia’s cycle tour company leader par excellence, Alen Augustin touring us from Munich to Venice); they’ve been nostalgic (i.e. BC Lakes & Mountains & McMenamin’s Hotels tours, and the Bellingham H&S); they’ve been thoughtful (hitching the Ottawa Valley tour to the Ottawa H&S); and, they’ve been pleasantly consistent (another classic Allan Buium camping tour). This year we have had the opportunity to climb the Alps, circle Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, ride the beautiful Columbia River Gorge; cycle in and around classic Peterborough; and, have tea and crumpets at the Empress. And you know folks, you’re going to make these journeys for much less cost than were you taking a commercial tour. We’re so fortunate to have fellow Club members both willing, and very able, to make these Events pleasant, interesting and safe journeys.
The Spring Special General Meeting (unofficially known as the Spring AGM) will take a breather this spring. This meeting was created to inform Club members about the year’s Events. This was before we had such timely communication systems, and during a time when the Event program was only rolled out in the New Year. Now, we generally have the program pretty much “put to bed” and folks signed up for the various evens by late February. No need to bring members together to go over pending events that have been advertised, and for the most part fully booked.
It is always good to get Club members together, but this venue could no longer attract a sizeable Club turnout. If we can replace this annual gathering with another that would serve a useful purpose or simply an enjoyable event, the Board would be more than happy to organize and host it. Give us a call. Otherwise we’ll see you on the bike paths or at the AGM in late November.
Goodbye Karelo: Hello to the Modified Event Registration System. Vancouver-based Karelo e-Services Inc., an “Online Registration Solution” for sporting clubs, was brought to CCCTS by Bruce McLean, our long standing Office Manager. The Club had outgrown the laborious, mechanical registration system that had slowly evolved since the Club’s inception. Bruce was overwhelmed. The Club had two options; hire a paid staffer or go online. The latter path was chosen; Bruce was given the task of finding a company. He researched well. He made a compelling argument to the Board for Karelo. The Board had little hesitancy buying into modernity. And I’m sure Bruce’s canny Scot background allowed him to land an economically-sound purchase. The system has been a “life saver” for Bruce, as Office Manager, and for the Club all these eight years. Thank you so much Bruce. You’ve been a great manager of the system. A good and patient teacher. And always on hand, and willing to cheerily assist those having problems manoeuvring through the Karelo protocol.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been just a little over a year that the Board bought into Max’s vision for a new website. He claimed that not only would it be a communications website, but that it could be used for a myriad of purposes including online registration. He didn’t promise, but did suggest the registration system could well be available in 2018. Well here we are in early 2017; Max is ready to launch his registration package. He placed his “Modified Event Registration Proposal” on February’s Board Meeting agenda. It was discussed and enthusiastically passed. If all goes well, it will be used for the Victoria Hub & Spoke registration, which opens April 15th. Well done Max.
Max, as our in-house web designer, has been able to customize the registration system to meet the unique needs of the Club. For example, registration will not be a “race-based model” i.e. the first come, first served system of old, which favoured those more comfortable with computers. How will this happen? By using a lottery system. There will be both a pre-registration and a registration period. The first occurs over days, when members can, at their leisure and at no cost, sign up. If more than the maximum number of participants sign up, say 40 for a tour designed for 24, then the second period, the lottery is triggered. Here a randomly generated number will be assigned to each lottery participant; couples participate as a pair. The higher the number received the better chance one has of winning, i.e. moving onto registration.
There are a number of advantages to this Modified Event Registration System as follows:
- No one has an advantage;
- Registration stress levels of old are gone;
- Pre-registration takes place over days thereby reducing timing conflicts for potential registrants;
- The Tours Director and Tour Leader will know well in advance, the popularity of the tour, thereby allowing more time to plan a second tour to accommodate those waitlisted; and
- It allows more time for the vetting of riding skills, etc. of the lottery winners.
A win-win system for all, but those fleet-of-finger, who managed to always win in the race-based model.
Website Registration. For those of you who’ve not yet registered for website access, please take the time to do so. There are a number of reasons for this: one being that the Newsbrief is not available to you; secondly, you’ll not be able to register for the Victoria Hub and Spoke. If you’ve tried website registration and had problems, seek help from a Club member who has registered. If that fails call your Chapter Leader, or any Board member.
A final pitch: Look after one another.
Welcome New Members
| 1 | Geraldine | Maclear | Burnaby | BC | |
| 2 | Jill | Sperle | Campbell River | BC | |
| 3 | Darcy | Mitchell | Courtenay | BC | |
| 4 | Bob | Cronin | Courtenay | BC | |
| 5 | Fair | Rapsey | Kanata | ON | |
| 6 | Lesley | Mcpherson | North Vancouver | BC | |
| 7 | Jan | Hancock | North Vancouver | BC | |
| 8 | Wayne | Bennett | Ottawa | ON | |
| 9 | Bev | Davis | Ottawa | ON | |
| 10 | Kevin | Mills | Ottawa | ON | |
| 11 | Kathleen | Learned | Seattle | WA | |
| 12 | Gerald | Anderson | Seattle | WA | |
| 13 | GORD | ROBERTSON | SURREY | BC | |
| 14 | Rita | Buchwitz | Vancouver | BC | |
| 15 | Bengul | Kurtar | Vancouver | BC | |
| 16 | Christine | Skinner | Vancouver | BC | |
| 17 | Mark | Bullen | Vancouver | BC | |
| 18 | Larry | Powell | Victoria | BC | |
| 19 | Philip | Beaty | West Vancouver | BC | |
| 20 | Pat | Howell | White Rock | BC |
Upcoming Hub and Spokes
Upcoming Tours
- 2017 Portland
- 2017 BC Lakes and Mountains
- 2017 Ireland – Wild Atlantic Way
- 2017 Munich to Venice
- 2017 Ottawa Valley
- 2017 Princeton
Lessons on Aging Well, From a 105-Year-Old Cyclist
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS FEB. 8, 2017
Robert Marchand, age 105, in Paris on Jan. 5, 2017, a day after setting a new one-hour cycling record. Credit Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
At the age of 105, the French amateur cyclist and world-record holder Robert Marchand is more aerobically fit than most 50-year-olds — and appears to be getting even fitter as he ages, according to a revelatory new study of his physiology.
The study, which appeared in December in The Journal of Applied Physiology, may help to rewrite scientific expectations of how our bodies age and what is possible for any of us athletically, no matter how old we are.
Many people first heard of Mr. Marchand last month, when he set a world record in one-hour cycling, an event in which someone rides as many miles as possible on an indoor track in 60 minutes.
Mr. Marchand pedaled more than 14 miles, setting a global benchmark for cyclists age 105 and older. That classification had to be created specifically to accommodate him. No one his age previously had attempted the record.
Mr. Marchand, who was born in 1911, already owned the one-hour record for riders age 100 and older, which he had set in 2012.
It was as he prepared for that ride that he came to the attention of Veronique Billat, a professor of exercise science at the University of Evry-Val d’Essonne in France. At her lab, Dr. Billat and her colleagues study and train many professional and recreational athletes.
She was particularly interested in Mr. Marchand’s workout program and whether altering it might augment his endurance and increase his speed.
Conventional wisdom in exercise science suggests that it is very difficult to significantly add to aerobic fitness after middle age. In general, VO2 max, a measure of how well our bodies can use oxygen and the most widely accepted scientific indicator of fitness, begins to decline after about age 50, even if we frequently exercise.
But Dr. Billat had found that if older athletes exercised intensely, they could increase their VO2 max. She had never tested this method on a centenarian, however.
But Mr. Marchand was amenable. A diminutive 5 feet in height and weighing about 115 pounds, he said he had not exercised regularly during most of his working life as a truck driver, gardener, firefighter and lumberjack. But since his retirement, he had begun cycling most days of the week, either on an indoor trainer or the roads near his home in suburban Paris.
Almost all of this mileage was completed at a relatively leisurely pace.
Dr. Billat upended that routine. But first, she and her colleagues brought Mr. Marchand into the university’s human performance lab.
They tested his VO2 max, heart rate and other aspects of cardiorespiratory fitness. All were healthy and well above average for someone of his age. He also required no medications.
He then went out and set the one-hour world record for people 100 years and older, covering about 14 miles.
Afterward, Dr. Billat had him begin a new training regimen. Under this program, about 80 percent of his weekly workouts were performed at an easy intensity, the equivalent of a 12 or less on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being almost unbearably strenuous according to Mr. Marchand’s judgment. He did not use a heart rate monitor.
The other 20 percent of his workouts were performed at a difficult intensity of 15 or above on the same scale. For these, he was instructed to increase his pedaling frequency to between 70 and 90 revolutions per minute, compared to about 60 r.p.m. during the easy rides. (A cycling computer supplied this information.) The rides rarely lasted more than an hour.
Mr. Marchand followed this program for two years. Then he attempted to best his own one-hour track world record.
First, however, Dr. Billat and her colleagues remeasured all of the physiological markers they had tested two years before.
Mr. Marchand’s VO2 max was now about 13 percent higher than it had been before, she found, and comparable to the aerobic capacity of a healthy, average 50-year-old. He also had added to his pedaling power, increasing that measure by nearly 40 percent.
Unsurprisingly, his cycling performance subsequently also improved considerably. During his ensuing world record attempt, he pedaled for almost 17 miles, about three miles farther than he had covered during his first, record-setting ride.
He was 103 years old.
These data strongly suggest that “we can improve VO2 max and performance at every age,” Dr. Billat says.
There are caveats, though. Mr. Marchand may be sui generis, with some lucky constellation of genes that have allowed him to live past 100 without debilities and to respond to training as robustly he does.
So his anecdotal success cannot tell us whether an 80/20 mix of easy and intense workouts is necessarily ideal or even advisable for the rest of us as we age. (Please consult your doctor before beginning or changing an exercise routine.)
Lifestyle may also matter. Mr. Marchand is “very optimistic and sociable,” Dr. Billat says, “with many friends,” and numerous studies suggest that strong social ties are linked to a longer life. His diet is also simple, focusing on yogurt, soup, cheese, chicken and a glass of red wine at dinner.
But for those of us who hope to age well, his example is inspiring and, Dr. Billat says, still incomplete. Disappointed with last month’s record-setting ride, he believes that he can improve his mileage, she says, and may try again, perhaps when he is 106.
Newsbrief
Published at least ten times a year by The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society, a non – profit organization for retired people and others who enjoy recreational cycling.
Items for the NEWSBRIEF must be received by the 28th of the month. The Editor reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity and suitability of publication. The views expressed in the “NEWSBRIEF” are not necessarily those of the CCCTS or the Editor.
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