What a Life! The inspirational tale of Robert Marchand.

Frenchman Robert Marchand may have been a small man, physically speaking, but he certainly lived a big life.

Imprisoned by the Nazis in the Second World War, he became a fire-fighter in Paris, lorry driver in Venezuela, lumberjack in Canada and – now back in his native country – a wine dealer before retiring and returning to bicycle racing, the sport of his youth.

That was in 1987 when he had reached a respectable age of 76, a time when most people are told to take it easy. But Marchand was only warming up.

In 1989, reports Britain’s Daily Telegraph, he pedalled from Paris to Moscow, just for the fun of it. When he turned 89, he rode the classic Bordeaux-Paris course over the dreaded cobbles and repeated the feat several times. To celebrate his hundredth birthday in 2012, the irrepressible Marchand set a world hour record for his age, covering over 15 miles on a velodrome in Switzerland.

That’s a decent clip for anybody, let alone a centenarian, but he would later improve his one-hour time by more than one and a half miles, accompanied by bugles and trumpets from his long-time cycling mates. In short, the older he got, the faster he rode.

Eager to set more records while still in his hundredth year, Marchand jumped back in the saddle to see how fast he could cover—wait for it -- 100 kilometres. He stopped the clock in four hours and 15 minutes, which would be a respectable time for a pretty fit 50 year-old.

In fact, in physical terms that’s pretty much what Marchand was – a man in his fifties. When scientists measured his oxygen intake – the standard VO2 max test, they found he had the lung capacity of a 55 year-old.

At this stage you would surely expect a steady decline in the physical capacity of Marchand. Not at all, the same test a year later when he was 102 revealed the lung capacity of a 45 year-old.

Marchand only stopped record-hunting at the age of 106 on the advice of doctors -- the spoil sports. But he did sneak out for the occasional spin on the road, like a 20-kilometre randoneé (jaunt) with his friends in his home region of the Ardèche near Provence, actually a favourite cycling spot of many (including me) because of it's rolling hills and medieval villages (or similar) and not least the possibility of passing a vineyard or two!

Always smiling (except when racing), Marchand followed a lifelong regime of daily vigorous physical activity, a lot of fruit and vegetables, not much meat or coffee, and no cigarettes. When asked his secret, he would say: “C’est la culture physique, vous voyez”. It’s physical culture, you see.

After the fullest of lives, Robert Marchand died in mid-2021 and is now reunited with his wife whose passing preceded him by 78 years. He never remarried.