PICTURES: Wally breaks bike record – at age 81
Most 81-year-olds would be taking the chance to relax and enjoy their retirement – but not Wally Fowler.
The great grandfather has broken a world cycling record for his age group, speeding around the track faster than someone a quarter of his age could manage.
A keen cyclist since 1950, Wally, from Brindley Brae, Kinver, managed to cycle 143 laps (21.7 miles) in the age category of the 80 to 84 hour time trial in Newport.
It smashed the previous record of 29.187km set by New Zealander Peter Grandiek only last month.
And it is the third world record he has clocked up in the last three years, along with the 200m and 500m time trials.
Now Wally aims to be victorious in the 'pursuit' crown, a 2km race which he will compete for at the World Track Masters next June in Manchester.
But he did not start cycling competitively until 10 years ago – some 50 years after he gave it all up to join the army.
He said: "I went back on the track after 50 years just to see if I still could. I found that I could and was persuaded by members of Halesowen Cycling Club that I should ride in a masters event."
Originally from Brighton, Wally won his first trophy in the sport as a budding 19-year-old at the Brighton Stanley Wanderers Club Championship.
But before he could think about taking cycling more seriously, he was called up for national service between 1952 to 1955, serving as a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) in Singapore and Hong Kong.
After leaving the army, Wally went to work in London for a number of advertising agencies and eventually moved to the Midlands in 1968 with his wife Margaret, setting up his own powder coating business in 1971.
Wally said: "After I came out the army I decided I needed to sort out my career, so cycling took a bit of a back step for a good number of years.
"I must have been in my mid forties when I decided to take it seriously again and have the time to enjoy. It's always been a huge passion of mine.
"It got to the stage where I started asking myself, 'can I still ride the track?' It turns out I could and have been a member of the Stourbridge Cycling Club since 1980, where I've just received the great honour of lifetime membership there. The sport is not just for the young, the middle aged or any special group of people.
"It is for everybody and in cycling, in particular, there are plenty of riders in their 60s, 70s and over who are able to enjoy sport to a level that surprises people who think the armchair is the only proper place to be when they retire.
"All of my recent medals and achievements have come since 2007 and I have no intention to stop.
"I see myself in the middle of my racing career and I will only stop when my body tells me I can't do it any more. My wife Margaret was my biggest fan, but she sadly passed away last year.
"She'd be proud to see record I broke this week."
Supported by son Stephen, aged 58, his two grand-daughters, Samantha, both 28 and Natasha, 26, along with great grand-daughter Sienna, Wally has set his sights on his next record – that would see him keep going for decades to come.
Celebrated centenarian French cyclist Robert Marchand broke the world hour record with 26.9km for his age group at 102 in January 2014 – a feat that Wally now aims to surpass.
Wally said training can be tough at his age, but he has already surpassed the expectations of cyclists who were unsure whether he could stand the pace.
He said: "A prominent older rider said to me when sussing out the competition in advance, 'You haven't done much racing, don't bother to come back!
Perhaps more by luck than anything, that rider finished behind me in a competition.
"It is a fine line, though, between right and wrong in older riders."
