UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF CYCLING'S SUPER AGERS

MEET THE SWEDISH SENIORS WHO PROVE YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO RIDE HARD.

- BILL DONAHUE

IT IS AMAZING HOW FRAIL A CYCLIST CAN FEEL ON THE CUSP OF A RACE OR ANY ADVENTURE DESIGNED TO TEST THE SPIRIT.

It was mid-June and I was in Sweden, on the shore of a glittering lake, Vättern, and about to take part in what's billed as the "world's largest bike challenge," the 196-mile Vätternrundan, along with 13,995 other riders, three-quarters of them Swedes. It was a delightfully cool Friday evening, and I should have been taking in the cobblestone streets and 13th-century architecture of Motala, the small city surrounding the starting line. I should have been casting my mind dreamily out onto the course. The race makes one clockwise loop around Vättern, Sweden's second-biggest lake, rolling through the long Swedish twilight as mist rises up from the water and the roads remain open to intermittent traffic.

But no, I was sullen and filled with dread, for my feet were hurting, along with the inside of my calves, and I was chastising myself for overtraining. Meanwhile, a larger question churned within me. Just a couple weeks after the Vätternrundan, I would be turning 60 and be blustering into old age with the unalloyed hunger of a 25-year-old.

I am one of those pathetic AARP members who still endeavors to attack on the hills, and I wondered, "How does one gracefully segue into old age?" I was in the right place to ask, for the Vätternrundan is an event that prides itself on welcoming all comers. There are, sure, a few lean phenoms who wail through the mostly flat course in just over seven hours. But the race, held annually, offers no prize money or even age-group awards, and the average finish time is about 13 and a half hours. At the starting line, where racers are released in groups of 50 or so at two-minute intervals from Friday night into the wee hours of Saturday morning, many cyclists show up in street clothes and sneakers. Rusty threespeeds are common in the peloton, and lots and lots of very old people take part.