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84 years old Lewisham man to go for cycling Hour Record on Friday

Move over Jensie!

Hot on the heels of Jens Voigt's announcement yesterday that he will make an attempt on the world Hour Record comes the news of a British attempt on cycling's most prestigious record.

But at twice Voigt's age, 84-year-old Sidney Schuman is aiming to set a record for his age group on Friday September 5, not to beat Ondrej Sosenka’s 49.7 kilometer record.

Sidney, from Hither Green in the south-east London borough of Lewisham, started cycling when he was 11 but had not ridden on a track until he took part in a taster session Lee Valley VeloPark in May. He was instantly hooked and began training for a world record attempt.

The retired maths teacher told 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."

No record currently exists for the 80-84 age category, but the oldest Hour Record holder is Frenchman Robert Marchand who broke his own record in January when he rode 26.925km at the age of 102.

Sidney typically rides a lap of the 250m velodrome in 30 seconds, so if he can maintain that pace for an hour he should set a mark of about 30km for other riders his age to go after.

Want to cheer Sidney Schuman on? His record attempt starts at 6.30pm on Friday September 5 at the Olympic velodrome at Lee Valley Velopark. Entry is free and the café will be open.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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17 comments

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psychle | 9 years ago
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Well done, Sydney! Hope my old age is as exciting.

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psychle | 9 years ago
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Well done, Sydney! Hope my old age is as exciting.

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psychle | 9 years ago
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Well done, Sydney! Hope my old age is as exciting.

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The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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Well done that man....a nice Horlicks and some furry slippers  36 after that ...NOT!
Great to see folks pushing themselves and to frack with all the naysayers...hope I'm doing something mad like that (if still around) when I'm that old.

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mhtt | 9 years ago
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He's done it! The record will stand at 28.338 km, or 113 and a bit laps

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haverstockgirl | 9 years ago
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Wow, amazing, hope he did well!  41

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haverstockgirl | 9 years ago
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Wow, amazing, hope he did well!  41

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jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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I'm going to go along tonight. This is exactly the sort of thing that a municipal velodrome should be doing IMO and I will support it.

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Veloacciaio | 9 years ago
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Great story, good luck!!

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samuri | 9 years ago
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Quote:

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking for an age group that includes 56.

Here's the chap you have to beat.  3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ond%C5%99ej_Sosenka

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Beatnik69 | 9 years ago
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That's a man with class (or at least he used to stand in front of one :D). Good luck to him!

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TheFatAndTheFurious | 5 months ago
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//

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Quince replied to TheFatAndTheFurious | 9 years ago
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neildmoss wrote:

When they said "Inspire a generation", I'm not sure this is what they meant!

Good on you, Sidney. Have at it!

Maybe "Inspire All Generations" would have been better. Either way, go go everybody! Especially this chap!

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steviewevie | 9 years ago
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Excellent! Well done that man.

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Mick Davidson | 9 years ago
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This is fantastic, good for him.
I've just searched the web for more info on the age groups that a record stands for, but can't find anything specific. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking for an age group that includes 56.
Thanks in advance.

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andybnk | 9 years ago
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Brilliant, good luck to him, still smashing it at 84!!

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alotronic | 9 years ago
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Brilliant! Gives us 'getting older' guys something to train for, I've got... 32 years to train for it.

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