INVERCARGILL — Peter Grandiek toasted his 95th birthday on Wednesday by shattering the Hour Record in the 95-99 age category at his home velodrome in Invercargill, covering 22.948km in 60 minutes. The Dutchman, who has lived most of his life in New Zealand, completed more than 91 laps to beat the previous benchmark of 20.151km set by fellow New Zealander Reg Rye in 2019 by almost 3km, with the ride still subject to ratification by the UCI.
Grandiek said he had expected to go further after a seat issue hampered his effort. “I was expecting to do a little bit more,” Grandiek told Cycling Weekly. “Something went wrong with my seat, because I was sitting far too far forward. I thought I was going to slip off. It’s never happened before, but these things happen sometimes.” He added: “What helped me was that they put the lap recorder on, so I could see how many laps I was getting. The previous record, the guy rode 80 laps. I probably gave a sigh of relief when I got to the 80 laps and still had about 10 minutes to go. That was pretty good. You just concentrate on going forward.”
The record was not his first. Grandiek once held the 80-84 Hour Record 11 years ago, before he was bettered three weeks later by then 81-year-old Briton Walter Fowler. Asked what motivated him to try again in his mid-90s, he said he simply “thought it might be something I might be capable of”. A twice-a-week regular at the velodrome, he said he felt comfortable holding over 20kph and thought: “Well, why not have a go?” He added: “I talk to people who are probably 40 years younger than me, and they think they’re old, and they say, ‘Oh, I can’t do this. I can’t do that.’ It’s a matter sometimes of mind over matter. You’ve got to challenge yourself.”
In order for the record to be official, Grandiek had to undergo anti-doping testing afterwards, an ordeal that lasted longer than the ride itself. He drank three large bottles of water “to help things come along” but said: “I got into the doping control room, and it took ages. They’ve got to have a certain volume [of urine], and it took hours. We finished [the record] just after 7pm, and I didn’t get home until quarter past 10.” Born and raised in a province north of Amsterdam, Grandiek emigrated to New Zealand on a six-week passenger ship in the early 1950s when he was 22. He worked on the railways in the South Island before becoming a house painter and later running a deer farm. He only took up cycling in 2007 in his mid-70s after playing rugby and running half marathons had become “too hard on the bones”. At 78 he suffered a sudden heart attack and required triple bypass surgery, but said almost two decades on he continues to do “contrary things to what the cardiologist would tell you – I’ve basically always ignored their advice and did what I wanted to do.”
Grandiek’s birthday ride was in support of local hospice Hospice South, continuing a tradition of charity rides on his birthday for the past 10 years. The benchmark in the next category, 100-104, stands at 26.925km, held since 2014 by Frenchman Robert Marchand. On whether he might target it, he said: “You can only do these things if you’re capable. There’s no doubt that as you get older, you slow down. I’ve lost speed compared to 10 years ago. You can’t help that. It’s a natural thing.” He added: “As soon as I got off the bike on Wednesday night, people said, ‘What are you going to do next year?’ and I said, ‘I’ll come up with something.’ I’ve done it for the last 10 years.” Donations can be made directly to Hospice South via the charity’s website.