High-profile cyclists have a higher life expectancy

High-profile cyclists have a life expectancy net superior to the average of men from their generation, according to a study of IRMES (Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d’Epidémiologie du Sport) presented on Wednesday at Paris.

IRMES, which presented this study with ocasion of the yearly Paris summit, studied 721 bikers, who finished in the first 10 at Tour de France and Italy’s Tour, during 1903 and 2009, and divided in ‘generations’ of 10 years.

According to the calculations so far (not finished cause 51% of the cyclists are still alive), it has been discovered that the bikers born before 1930 had a life expectancy 9 years higher than the average of men born in their era.

“I think they had physical qualities that gave allowed them to have such a life expectancy”, points Nour El Helou, the author of the study, who only has a certainty for the cyclists born after 1930. Up-scalling though, “it can be estimated their life expectancy was higher than the average of the population at that time”.

From the 238 cyclists that took part at Tour de France after 1930, 25 died, at an average age of 49,8 years.

Nour El Helou notes that there were premature and violent deaths among the cyclists born in the 70s and that took part in Tour de France in the 90s.