Intro:

An 84-year-old Briton set a new world 'UCI Hour Record' for his age group at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's velodrome in East London on Friday (5th September).

Script:

Despite having never ridden on a velodrome track before May of this year, at 84 years old Sidney Schuman decided to take to a bike and attempt to break his age group's Hour Record.

Success at the Lee Valley VeloPark was all but guaranteed as Schuman was the first cyclist in the UCI's 80 to 84 age category to attempt the record.

The oldest hour record holder is Frenchman Robert Marchand, who broke his own mark in January when he rode 26.925 kilometres at the incredible age of 102.

Cheered on by family and friends, Schuman comfortably eclipsed that distance, covering 28.388 kilometres, or 113-and-a-half laps of the 250-metre velodrome track.

The record attempt ended in drama as Schuman fell off his bicycle after coming to a halt, but thankfully suffered only minor injuries.

Schuman later said he hoped his exploits would encourage other senior citizens to get on the saddle.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sidney Schuman, UCI Hour Record holder 80-84 age group:

"And that's what I've had all the time, since I first started training for this I've had such a lot of encouragement from family and friends and they've, made it such a wonderful experience for me, and my feeling is there are lots of 80 plus, men and women, who ride bikes that could be having experiences like this too, and I'd like that to be, a consequence of this, not…. someone is going to break this record, this is not much of a record, but that's not the point."

The champagne, well deserved.