At 105, Robert Marchand has just set a new bike hour record. This is explained by its remarkable physiological characteristics, according to sports doctors.
Despite his 105 years, Robert Marchand seems to have no limits. Already the holder of the previous bike hour record, the centenary has just established a new feat. In the category of 105 years and over, this Wednesday he covered 22.547 km in sixty minutes on the track of the velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Yvelines).
This Seine-et-Marnais also holds the 100-year-old record with 26.925 km swallowed. But the International Cycling Union (UCI) which had specially created the Masters category for over 100 years old for him is perhaps not at the end of its surprises. On Franceinfo, the former Paris firefighter said he could go even faster: “ I could have done better. I haven’t seen the record for the last 10 minutes. Otherwise I would have gone a little faster ”.
Remarkable characteristics
To explain these extraordinary performances, doctors looked at the profile of this athlete born in Amiens (Somme) in 1911. It emerges that even if he measures barely 1.50, m Robert Marchand has remarkable physiological characteristics.
This is what Pr Véronique Billat, research director at the laboratory of the Integrative Biology Unit for Adaptations to Exercise (1), can attest to. The one who closely follows Robert Marchand confided two years ago that he was interested in the effects of physical exercise on oxygen consumption. In The Parisian, she declared: “The more we gain in consumption, the faster we can go, have energy, ensure good heart and muscle health”.
A decline in performance linked to lower age
A demonstration that the physiologist has managed to do with this centenary. Through exercise, her maximum oxygen volume increased from 15 to 38 ml / min / kg. And his maximum heart rate is 157 beats per min. Concretely, at 102 years old, he has the energetic power of a man of 45.
The scientist also highlighted a decline in performance with age, which is less important for cycling compared to athletics or swimming. “This is due to the very nature of the sport,” she said. You can, it is true, train in cycling relatively late in the years. Sport is not traumatic unlike running. It is therefore easy to maintain with age.
Specific training
As a result, Robert Marchand appears to be the most impressive athlete for a team of French researchers (2). In a recent study published in the journal Age and Aging, these scientists recorded a reduction in performance of barely 50.6% compared to the world record for the hour in this discipline, obtained by Bradley Wiggins in 2015 with more than 54 km. Robert Marchand therefore travels by bike half as fast as the record holder in his discipline, where other hundred-year-old athletes run or swim on average four times slower.
Finally, the secret to improving your oxygen consumption also lies in your training. These are the “roller coasters” summarized Véronique Billat. “We ask Robert not to cycle intensively, only when he feels like it, but alternating between difficulties and speeds. Go slowly and then very hard! She concluded.
(1) The Laboratory of Integrative Biology of Adaptations to Exercise which depends on INSERM and the Génopole d’Evry (Essonne)
(2) Inserm Unit 1093 “Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity” at the University of Burgundy
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