GCN Show: Does cycling help or hurt your long term health?

How much can cycling increase your lifespan and improve your health? Or is too much riding actually bad for you? In this week’s GCN Show, Dan Lloyd and James 'Hank' Lowsley-Williams investigate the scientific research behind long-term health in our sport.

Cycling is good for your longevity

What the team found out was that commuting by bike can be extraordinarily beneficial for people needing to lug their way to work. A study from the University of Glasgow recently looked at over 250,000 people who commute to work in three different ways: by bike, walking or non-active means. Of the group surveyed, the cyclists were statistically the least likely to suffer from a number of conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

There are other studies that have come to similar conclusions, with one smaller study in the United Kingdom suggesting that in older people who have cycled regularly their whole lives, their baseline levels of health are equivalent to that of inactive adults in their 20s.

Outside of commuting, there was a study in Denmark that showed life expectancy of cyclists increases with the intensity of that cycling. More effort equalled more years of life expectancy amongst cyclists who were sampled over an 18 year period. In terms of distance ridden, there were also studies that showed cyclists who have raced the Tour de France live eight years longer than an average person.

Moral of the story, ride bikes and you will probably live a couple of years longer. Or at least that is what the science says.

Here were a couple of the other headlines:

• Canyon has released their new Endurace endurance bike with ample storage, internal routing, a more upright geometry and capable tire clearance.
• Last week at RAGBRAI an Alaskan cyclist rode across the state of Iowa, all 500 miles of the famous route, backwards.
• The buzz around the 2024 Paris Olympics has started in an unlikely way with British Cycling protesting the Japanese and French bike designs that they say infringe upon their Lotus track bike from the last Olympic cycle.
• In terms of strange bike design, Lachlan Morton threw his name into the 'crazy rig' ring. We wrote a story on that bike for the site and you won't want to miss it.

Coming up on YouTube this week:

• Six things the UCI should ban
• So you think you're a good cyclist? Pro tips to raise your level even more
• Canyon endurance, the first look
• Gravel bike versus mountain bike versus a 100 mile multi-surface route
• Ollie and the 1,000 mile Tour du Station

Head over to the GCN YouTube channel to keep up with the new releases coming out this week.

On GCN+ this week:

• Vuelta a Burgos
• Tour of Leuven
• Tour du Limousin
• Tour of Denmark
• Arctic Race of Norway
• NCL Atlanta

Hack/Bodge: