102YearOld Cyclist Robert Marchand Sets World Record
Forget the Tour de France. Here's a true tour de force. At an age when most people are, well, not even around anymore, Robert Marchand still rides his bike with panache. In fact, he's a world beater. On Friday, the Frenchman, 102 years young, pedaled his bike around a velodrome, or indoor cycling track, a distance of 26.9 kilometers 16.7 miles in one hour, establishing a centenarian record. That Herculean effort beat the previous record of 24.25 kilometers, which he himself owned, reports Le Parisien. The remarkable achievement was given the thumbs-up by the International Cycling Union, the governing body of world cycling, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. Marchand may not be as fast as the current world record holder for the distance traveled in one hour on a conventional road bikethat honor belongs to the Czech Republic's Ondej Sosenka, who traveled 49.7 kilometers nearly 30.9 miles in 2005but how can you not be impressed with this flying Frenchman?, Le Parisien