It was my first chance to guide a pair of Mountain Bikers on their mountain bike vacation; two brothers from Seattle and Spokane. They were sixty four and seventy years old. My impression was that they'd completed some bike rides and biking tours, but given their ages, I would be taking them on short bike rides around our Ranch, short biking tours only.
My greatest mistake was assuming age was a limitation.
Two elderly gentlemen appeared for their mountain bike vacation, lively with a fire in their eyes for mountain biking. It became quickly apparent that they were no weekend warriors, with fourteen years of experience between them, dozens of biking tours, and top of the line gear.
Taking them on a shakedown ride exemplified that muscular legs were not for show, but carved from many bike rides in preparation for this very mountain bike vacation. I had my work cut out for me. The two devout mountain bikers had no trouble keeping up with a guide one third their age.
Climbing Eldorado Mountain the next day was the true test, here my guests showed their experience from previous biking tours, climbing 3000 feet with little rest. True grit. Acceptional muscular conditioning from years of bike rides payed off. Where my legs were fatigued and my muscles fasciculating, the experienced bikers stood proud in the alpine meadows.
Even more impressively, my guest, sixty four and seventy, were not deterred by feet of rotten snow, following the old tracks of grizzly bears through the pass, bikes on their backs, motivated on their mountain bike vacation.
The bikers had an outlook on riding foreign to me. Wisdom of age showed in their motivation for riding; to challenge themselves on the uphill, to understand and view the wilderness they traversed on their biking tour (not just fly past), so summit mountains and experience a new alpine world.
On our return journey we passed bike rides heading up the mountain, many young people, struggling up the hill red faced and breathless, a stark comparison with the seasoned riders I was grouped with.
For me this shows that practice and training can keep you at peak performance , regardless of age.
James, Australia