Portrait of a super senior: Herman Derdin (80) wants to break the cycling hour record. “My first time on the slopes? I should have put on a diaper”

How far can an eighty-year-old man cycle in one hour, and get further than any peer has ever gone? That is the question Herman Derdin is looking for an answer to: on Friday he will attack the hour record among the over-80s, at the cycling track in Ghent. Let’s take a look at the numbers: the Belgian record stands at 37.046 kilometers, the world record at 39.04 kilometers. Spicy food, even for men half his age. “Survive the starting block and the first corner and then it will be okay,” he says. A portrait of a sporty super senior.

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