Peter Grandiek celebrated his 95th birthday on Tuesday night by riding further in an hour than any cyclist his age has done before.
Grandiek covered 22.948km on the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome track at ILT Stadium Southland, beating the men's 95-and-over world best of 20.151km set by Reginald Rye in Cambridge in 2019. The distance remains subject to official ratification.
He had set himself a target of 95 laps for 95 years and had been reaching about 23km in training. The hour-long ride was organised by Cycling Southland and sanctioned through the UCI, Cycling New Zealand and Integrity Sport, with officials on hand to oversee it.
The attempt also raised funds for Hospice Southland, with Bonisch, Calder Stewart and Cruickshank Pryde as sponsors.
Family, supporters and members of the local cycling community watched from the grandstand and sang happy birthday as he rode. Grandiek said afterwards he had not heard them because he was concentrating on what his front wheel was doing. "I am happy I didn't disappoint them," he said.
He had wanted to make the attempt earlier in the year, but said the 10-month gap had allowed him to train properly for it.
"I still love the challenge of trying to break a record when cycling," he told The Southland Times.
Late starter
Grandiek emigrated from the Netherlands to New Zealand in his 20s and settled in Southland, where sport took a back seat for decades while he worked and raised a family.
He took up cycling in his 70s after running with the harriers became too hard on his bones, and started competing in 2007. At his first South Island Masters Championships in Christchurch that year, about six weeks after taking up the sport, he won gold, silver and bronze medals on an old track bike lent to him by Laurie Tall.
In October 2015 he rode 29.187km in an hour at the same velodrome during the Oceania Track Championships, a world best for the 80-84 age group that beat a mark set in London the previous year.
Other rides have followed. For his 90th birthday he spent four hours on the track to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, at 91 he rode 111km from Mossburn to Invercargill for the Cancer Society, and at 93 he covered 26km in an hour for a New Zealand record.
He no longer races because there are too few riders in his age group to compete against, so record attempts, gym sessions and movement classes keep him active.
Grandiek said people were already asking what he would do for his 96th birthday. He said he would worry about that next year, and for now planned to enjoy his vegetable garden and take a short break from the bike.
Because the ride was sanctioned as a record attempt, a successful result triggers mandatory drug testing, with testing staff needing to be flown in from the North Island.
