Syears tremble or falter, a man 105 years old Frenchman Robert Marchand has traveled 22,547 miles in one hour Wednesday at the velodrome national, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a record that has yet to be approved by the international bodies.
“no, I am not tired, I have not had sore legs, I have a sore arm. Finally should be wrong somewhere !” he joked after 92 laps of the track, surrounded by a cloud of journalists, saying it was surprised to be already happened.
“I thought that I still had miles to go, I would have been able to go faster”, launched the centenary, which had significantly picked up speed in the final laps.
“Now I wait for my opponent”, the one which will be able to beat his record, in any new category of record of the time of more than 105 years old, he still laughed.
of His performance, to be approved by the international cycling Union (UCI), must take and pass the cap tests, anti-doping, which – if the cyclist is faithful to his lifestyle – should be a formality.
The distance might be far behind the record of the British Bradley Wiggins (54,526 km), it raised no less admiration.
Jean-Michel Richefort, his coach technique, is “really moved” by his feat.
“It’s gone very quickly, I fear that he might have cramps. But he was always lucid, very focused, with a trajectory perfect”, he praised.
the yellow Jersey and purple (the colours of The Ardèche department, which organizes the event with the French Federation of cycling), bike-to-measure : Robert Marchand has chained the laps with the encouragement of several hundred people.Unfazed. “It has one advantage it is that he is deaf, he is in his thing and he wants to turn,” said Roland, 80 years of age.
- “the beautiful years” -
Supporters are very enthusiastic, members of The Ardèche department had risen before dawn to be present. “This is a specimen”, which exudes “happiness”, praises Marcel under his hat canary yellow.
“We hope to be old like him”, he adds.
“at the age that he has, this is incredible,” enthuses also Liliane, a young retiree, came with her husband. “It encourages us, it means that we still have beautiful years ahead of us.”
fireman, planter of sugar cane, wine merchant or grocer… Robert Marchand, born November 26, 1911 in Amiens, has worked up to an advanced age, and now lives in a modest apartment in the suburbs of paris, after a life marked by the two world wars, the cold war and years backpacking in Venezuela and Canada.
It is also committed – long-standing, obviously – to the communist Party and the CGT.
During his greeting to the press, the number one union Philippe Martinez has slipped that the centenary had “another record that is less publicized: it’s been 90 years that he is at the SGC, you will find that the CGT, it keeps !”
After his performance, the central has sent “all his congratulations to his faithful comrade.”
three years ago, on January 31, 2014, Robert Marchand beat his own record in the same velodrome in browsing 26,927 km in an hour. He had greatly improved upon his performance in 2012, when it was established, with 24,251 miles, the record of more than 100 years, a category created for it.
Its records are likely to be beaten, said to the AFP the professor Jean-François Toussaint, director of the Institute for research in biomedicine and epidemiology of sport (IRMES) : “The maxima (records) for the trees have not ye t been achieved”, he said, while praising a performance that is “outstanding”.
And Robert Merchant, would it be ready to attack the record of over 110 years ? “It is a little bit distant it recausera !”
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