RECREATION / BIKING : Bicyclists With Graying Hair Put Their Hearts Into Outdistancing Age

It’s hard to believe that Andy Van Rassel was born in 1918, or that Bill Kramer was entering the first grade when America was hurled into the Great Depression.

They’re senior citizens now, retired, their professional lives behind them, but if you look beyond the wrinkles and mats of gray-flecked hair, you’ll see something else. Look in their eyes and you see the competitive spirit of a teen-ager; look at their legs and you see the well-toned muscles of an athlete.

Van Rassel and Kramer aren’t your stereotypical retirees. They don’t worry about their health or grow old puttering around a golf course carrying an extra 20 pounds around the waist.

What these guys do is ride bicycles, almost every day, sometimes faster than others, but always at distances that humble cyclists 30 years their junior.

“I ride about 200 miles a week,” said Van Rassel, a retired graphics designer from Garden Grove. “I’m addicted to double centuries. I love them. I’ve done a couple of triples too.”

Added Kramer: “I think I did my last triple in 21 hours, or maybe it was 23 hours.” This is not kid’s stuff. A “century” in bicycling is a 100-mile ride, the rough equivalent to what a marathon is to runners. A 200-mile ride (a double century) is a daunting challenge for riders in the best of shape. A “triple” means Kramer and Van Rassel rode 300 straight miles without interruption--a Herculean endeavor by any standard.

Van Rassel, 72, and Kramer, 66, are living testimony that no matter what your age, you can stay in shape. And for them, the road to fitness is the classic, European-style road bike.

Van Rassel, Kramer and half a dozen other cyclists, all in their late 50s, 60s or 70s, met recently at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant at the corner of Culver and Michelson drives in Irvine for their regular Thursday ride--a little jaunt up to Long Beach and back.

All were retired, some were reformed smokers, and some had suffered heart attacks and other ailments. But there was one common thread among these men: the desire to maintain a level of fitness that defies their age.

Meet Arnold McClintock, 62, a retired steel company vice president who had a heart attack in 1981, discovered bicycling, and has never looked back.

“After my heart attack, I knew I had to start exercising,” he said. McClintock had read that biking and swimming were two sports that can be practiced well into the years without fear of injury. He bought a bike, joined the Bicycle Club of Irvine and the Orange County Wheelmen, and quickly reached a fitness level he had not experienced since his youth.

“My general health is 100% better,” said McClintock, who puts in about 200 miles a week and has the legs to prove it. “It helps you maintain a low weight and you have a heck of a lot of fun. I have had a full recovery. I show absolutely no signs of ever having had a heart attack. My doctor just tells me, ‘Keep climbing those hills!’ ”

At 59, Garden Grove resident Jay Wagnon is one of the younger riders in the group that meets twice weekly in Irvine. They all ride five to six days a week but with other groups. A retired carpenter, Wagnon is a former smoker who took up the bike seven years ago.

“I used to run before, but that will kill you,” Wagnon said. “The thing is, you can ride 100 miles and it won’t affect you as much as running a 10th of a marathon. That’s the best thing about it. You can do it until the day you die. And it makes you feel 20 years younger.”

Wagnon then looked across the table at Van Rassel and Kramer and added softly: “This riding thing is like a religion. We’re all friends and we devote so much time to it, it’s like a religious thing.”

Kramer and Van Rassel nodded their heads in silent agreement and began to dwell on what keeps them pedaling.

“One of the unusual things about cycling is that in some ways, all ages are on the same level,” Kramer said. “You can talk to a junior racer on the same level. You’re talking about the same things, you’re interested in the same thing.”

Added Van Rassel: “I don’t race, but I like the same things they do--the hammering, the pacelines, the touring. And I enjoy the people. I’ve never had so much fun in all my life.”

And it seems that just about nothing can keep these men off their bikes. Kramer was blindsided by a motorist in 1984 and suffered five broken ribs and a broken collar bone when he crashed to the pavement. He was in the hospital for three days but was back on the bike as soon as possible.

Today, he puts in 300 to 400 miles a week, riding five days a week.

“It’s a control thing,” the former accountant said. “You can control your own output. And today I am stronger than when I was 35.”

Van Rassel went down biking in a paceline last year and broke his hip. He was back on a wind trainer in two weeks and just returned from an eight-day bike tour of Utah.

“I didn’t want to stay off the bike long,” he said. “I have had absolutely no ill effects.”

With that, Kramer, Van Rassel and the others excused themselves, adjusted their helmets, hopped on their bikes and headed down Culver Drive toward the coast. They had a 45-mile ride in front of them.