Original subtitles

One of the objectives should be to show

that someone of my age, 82,

could do something like this

At all ages.

we know that having a purpose, a reason to get up, a dream,

something you're trying to achieve, that makes people both happier

and healthier at every single decade of life.

When you're out of breath and you can't talk anymore,

maybe it's not curtains, but it means you're not ready to go any further.

How many bends done? There’s 20 bends. Still left? Yes.

You've only done one. You can't do something like this.

If you don't have a team of people with you. Mountains everywhere

just keeps you distracted and moving forward.

It's lovely.

What a place to ride a bicycle.

And I love studying

how the body adapts to exercise and altitude and aging.

I'm a cardiologist,

and I really enjoy helping people get stronger.

Get healthy.

We don't need to sit on the couch when we're in our 80s.

We can get out there

and we can do extraordinary things to make put minds to it.

And I love doing active things in nature with others.

I also really love to see other people come alive.

So in my professional life, when I work with people

helping them overcome health or performance challenges, learning

how to move, to see them

evolve makes me feel alive too.

Got to keep it going now.

Lovely position on your bike.

There is a struggle.

There is a way to do it that is an inspiration

to give to people and make them see what is possible.

Fight for life or fit for life.

It is up to you to decide.

For some people

as they got older, they stop having ambitions or dreams

and that is something that will make you old, quote unquote.

But by that I don't mean really old, right?

The word old simply means a person who has lived longer.

We tend to use it as a bad thing, as a person who doesn't do much

or isn't very happy.

We desperately

want our elderhood to be long, meaningful, and satisfying.

Yet most of us refuse to approach it with the same shameless ambition

we reflexively accord.

Childhood and adulthood.

I sort of think that's the crux of the idea here,

that we dread old age, but we also don't try.

We essentially abdicate and then are upset

when it's not good and and that's sad news.

But it's also great news because we can change that.

Elder hood is full of opportunity.

What's it like to ride in the Alps?

Grim determination to reach the top.

It's a personal battle.

You've got to believe in yourself.

So too, the opening day, of which there are seven.

The weather is not too good, but the mountains are now all around

our intrepid riders.

This was going to be a great hors d’oeuvres to the whole week.

I just like sports.

I was never a champion in any of these sports.

I was a champion of trying everything.

I did kind of decide to have an active life.

I was riding a bicycle from the age

12.5 years old to today, 82 years old.

There's something magic about being on a bike.

Or I had ridden a few of the passes

individually, but I had never done something like this.

How much biking I've done?

I think maximum biking

I've done is 30km.

I would have done it a couple of times,

and that's about it.

No hills, no mountains.

Yeah, good to go. So I was never a sportsperson.

But then soon I discovered running.

I saw these runners on the road and you know

I thought why don't I try that?

And that's how my journey in running started.

And I'm close to 14 marathons now.

One ultramarathon, which is a 90km in South Africa.

And here I am cycling.

I'm trying my level best.

It's hard, but, Yeah, it's a mind game.

It's a mind game.

This whole thing is ten miles.

How much do you want to know?

I can tell you exactly how long the climb is.

I have it on my.

Don't tell me.

And what was your motivation to begin riding?

Health. Health?

Absolutely. Health.

Mumbai. To the Alps. Yeah.

Baptism of fire.

I used to

see people falling unwell and being a runner, it was a motivation

for me to spread things like self-care, preventive care.

But I started my journey in health care.

I want to be a champion for healthy living.

And societal well-being

seeing how living healthy helps in all areas of your life.

Keep going, keep going.

No! Hang on.

Come on. I'll go up with you.

You can do it.

It's just going to be tough.

But just keep it a little slow here so Tania can catch up.

Better than if you wear somebody out the first day.

It doesn't work.

Yodeliing

I'm occasionally a doctor.

Not qualified.

A cat-herder and a bit of a nanny.

For this sort of tour, it's

it's exciting because there's all sorts going on, and you've got.

people have lots of a wide range of abilities.

But it's always exciting.

And every trip is different.

And, you know,

if you're not flexible in this game, you're going to go mad.

Come-on Jack.

You can do this.

I think you're on your easiest gear right now.

Jack, do you want to eat something?

Right, Jiggs keep going.

It's crazy.

This is tough,

it's going to go tougher

and look at Jack.

He's doing it so easily.

Right?

The only way is

I’m going to stand. Massive amount of effort on this corner.

Alright Jiggs?

You got it.

Climb! Climb! Climb!

Jigg's ! Six kilometers.

Oh, fish.

I don't think Jiggs is just going to make it up.

I think he's had enough already, I think.

I think we're looking at an electric bike.

When I see all these guys cycling

so smoothly, I think they'll practice that for sure.

For sure.

There's the village. And.

Well, that was the order of a week of climbing the big mountains

coming soon.

I was not at all prepared to what I was, looking to do.

Maybe I never did my study.

I never saw what was coming.

And I like the surprise element whenever I'm doing something.

But, this one was very, very tough.

And and when we started doing it,

the rhythm was not there, because I'm not used to many things.

There are many, factors which need to be considered

when you're riding, you know, the Alps.

I'll just finish off around this corner.

Over the finish line.

How was that?

It's cute.

Yeah. Isn't it cute?

Yeah.

Can you smell?

Cute village. The real thing. What is this smell?

It's called the goat’s village. Oh. There are goats.

all over this mountainside.

Jack.

Not too bad. Not bad. Good warm up.

Good warm up.

You get your heart rate over 100, maybe.

Oh, yes.

I'd like to go explore up there.

You know, I've rarely seen anything so green.

So many pine trees.

A lake in the middle of it.

I mean, Jigg's is at sea level.

It's flat.

It's like 40 degrees. Lots of humidity.

This is the first time he's been to the Alps.

And I think it's really, really hitting him.

He had no idea what he was in for.

I've done these hard trainings. Right.

And, you know, there are times when I'm not trained for the marathon.

I've gone and run the marathon.

So I knew that if if I get mad at them, I'll be able to achieve a lot.

Than what you know, I thought in day one.

The Joux Plane by many riders, it's the toughest.

The Col de la Columbiere is the cruelest.

How are you feeling?

You want to know how far it is? It's.

Oh! It’ll be a two hour walk

if you walk it

at minimum, probably three.

No, I'm not going to walk.

No.

This is a good place to try again Jiggs.

okay.

We've established Jiggs must be completely crazy.

I think running is far superior than cycling.

I can run miles and miles.

But to cycle up the hill

was a tough one.

You Okay? Okay. Go.

Oh, yeah.

We'll make a plan. But we'll get there.

I need to be stronger.

So, yeah, running and cycling are different.

They have different fatigue points.

Running sort of slow and steady.

And then with cycling, you have to adapt to the terrain.

So you have these steep parts, you have this big force output

and then you redline on the steeps and then a little flat like this

and you recover and you’re ready to go?

This is the first time that I've really tried to tackle

something like this.

Back to back days.

Big cols and so.

So we'll see how I do on day 5 or 6.

Were you a runner before you were a cyclist or what?

I'm more of a trail runner.

I just loved being in the mountains and, you know, cross-country skiing.

I'm sort of a jack of all trades, just like Jack.

I've never been superb at anything, but I've done

a lot of different sports.

I think adaptability is the key, isn't it?

You do lots of different sports and you transition a lot more easily.

So just moving the muscles, any muscles released mykines

that you act as pharmacies.

And it can be any type of exercise.

These myokines send these signals that feed

not only back to the muscles but throughout the whole system.

And increase brain function.

And that's why we feel better and we think more clearly, and we

maintain our neurons in our brain when we exercise.

It's these myokines that are going to the brain.

If you get people a little bit stronger,

a little bit more confident in their ability

can then lead to more spontaneous physical activity

that then increases cardiovascular fitness.

There is no threshold of benefit for physical activity.

Anything you can do is better than not doing

anything and building on that.

And again,

once you start, there can be this spiraling up

with the increased confidence and ability to move.

Animals on the road. They are licking the salt off my legs

They are adorabale. Hi, sweetie.

Hello. Okay,

we'll move away.

I love goats.

I love fit for life

because the second word life acknowledges life-span.

Your fitness level, what you can and can't do varies a lot

if you're 5 or 25 or 55 or 95,

but it means you can be fit across that whole life-span,

even if what it looks like will be different at

different ages in your life.

When I have those patients that are older than me,

that are further on in their life,

that are closer to the end than the beginning,

you know, they can be 80 year olds

and they just start talking to me about what

they're still capable of doing.

You become interested. Me being 63 years old,

I say, you know, I want to be like that person right there

when I'm 80 years old and invariably

they have invested

over decades in their body.

And so they're inspiring.

You got the fancy labs around here to make measurements, but that's okay.

Sometimes you need that to trigger them off to say,

this is where you are.

You're right here.

This is sophisticated strength test

Released from the machine.

But again it's very simple you know can you walk up

two flights of stairs without having to stop after the first flight.

And sometimes I actually get my patients in my office.

I say, can you show me how to do a push-up?

Okay, let's get another number.

Eight.

Eight.

Hey, you're going up again and get a little harder.

Keep pushing. Jack.

You're good things. Looking good.

Keep pushing.

Pushing, Jack. Keep pushing.

Red zone nine. Okay. Keep going.

This is where it counts.

You got it.

We’re going up another stage.

Okay. You're going up.

Okay. Go go go go go. Great.

Okay.

And, All right.

Bravo! Fantastic effort there.

You're actually better. So normally

someone your age would be declining 1 to 2% per year at least.

And you went up. So that's really exceptional.

The training... I do something every day.

We tested you,

on on your maximal strength of your quads and your hamstrings.

And there again, you've maintained an exceptional strength.

You know,

if you've got aerobic capacity, you don't need very much to walk

from A to B, because you can walk from A to B in five minutes.

And you can also walk from A to B in 20 minutes.

You'll get there.

But walking up stairs

picking up groceries, you need strength.

I think it's so hard to maintain your muscle mass as you age,

and so really focusing on that

then allows you to do these other activities.

We've only given the good stuff, right.

You got to talk about, you know, your balance exercise.

We're a little bit under under average.

Absolutely, it was really lousy.

So that's got to be one of your objectives.

And so it's also important for people to remember that

they can start at any age and get benefit at any age.

And so you can change that trajectory.

Yeah,

I would say what we're doing is a little extreme.

Yeah.

I mean this is not a normal feat.

It's more than most people need to do.

So we're going for the ultimate test by doing seven days in a row.

Yet there are ways to be moderate.

For example, say if we did the riding days every other day.

Perfect is that an option.

Oh yes. Let's do that.

Or one col a day rather than two cols a day.

Allez, allez, allez!

Nobody lives on the Columbiere.

It's famous for its loneliness.

It's a beautiful climb.

Yeah, I'm sticking on my... Stick to your pace.

No, no. My pace. Oh, no. No, this is what I mean.

Just keep going. Yeah. Keep going.

You've got a great pace, Jack.

I would really like to pull over and sit down.

Yeah.

You know, I just hate to give up.

You've just been told you're ultra fit for

a man of 82.

Now you've got to prove it.

It's hurting Jack.

It really does look steep up there.

Yeah I'm starting to feel it.

As long as we're talking, we're going at a speed,

which I think we both, and keep going pretty much to the top.

I think that part of the resistance to people getting out and doing

something is the fear of failure, and that shouldn't be an obstacle.

And people find

that they are actually capable of a lot more than what they think,

and that oftentimes just giving it a try will bring a whole new thing,

a whole new source of joy into their life,

and certainly worth giving a try.

And if that doesn't work for you, you try something else.

I was playing squash.

I was playing

tennis, and I was riding my bicycle to as many places as possible. So,

I think it was because I felt better, when I was doing exercise.

Thanks for all the company.

Accompanying me. Way to go Jack!

That was a long haul.

Why that's so steep.

Yeah. Now, the descent will be fun.

If we can stay warm, it'll be fabulous.

It's hard to believe it's June but... Back in the car.

It's too fast for me.

I'm going to take it easy. Okay? Let's go.

Go, ladies. Go.

I'll be ready for tomorrow. Right?

It’s very hard.

That's a big climb,

the Col de la Columbiere.

It's a big challenge in the Tour de France.

Now, let's have a look at the terrible twins.

Because on day three, we're going up the Col des Aravis.

Out of which

the first introduced to the tour de France riders back in 1911,

and Les Saisies. It's going to be a tough one today.

We're doing this together.

Yeah, yeah, I can go a little slower.

You want to go a little slower and just stay at that pace.

Yeah. This pace is good. Don't.

Yeah. It's perfect.

Don't be tempted to go any faster.

And as you slow your breathing down,

it'll settle your heart rate down.

And you won't waste any energy.

And then keep your vision forward and your chest open

to maximize your lung expansion.

Just keep the rhythm.

Perfect. Good.

I can talk still. Good.

That's the most important thing.

I've never done this before.

I've never conquered mountains with the bicycle.

So totally new for me.

Best way to celebrate my 50th.

Every single sort of person can have dreams and ambitions.

So really, having a purpose is the purpose

good to be the same as when you were 20?

No, but it's not the same when you're 50 is when you're 20.

What is it

you want to achieve in the coming years or decades of your life?

Because the fact is, most of us will have years and decades.

We don't want to just coast through them.

We want to make the most of them,

and they offer different and exciting opportunities

if you're willing to look for them.

Stopping. Ah, they must be

stopping, for the liqeur des Aravies, a very potent

liqueur made right here amongst the alpine flowers.

Doing great. He's doing great.

Got a good pace.

I'd like to see people not take retirement

and say, oh, now I'm going to rest,

because rest is the thing that will get

you really quickly if you retire and you don't do anything

and you don't have an objective in life or objectives in life,

just remember,

this is the only time in your life when this will be your first col.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for getting me here.

Go on.

Go to the top.

Yes. Jiggs. Yes.

Good man.

Woo woo. Well done. Jiggs.

You see, Mumbai may be flat, but you can climb.

Oh yeah.

I didn't think he would get through day two.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Well done! Super. Smashed it.

Yeah.

Look my friend. Look who's come out to see who.

Yeah.

Mont Blanc.

1486 meters - a gain of 630m on the climb.

Yeah. Thank you.

Oh, good work.

Nice and sweaty? Yeah.

I didn’t want to stop!

Okay.

Turn around.

Oh, isn't this beautiful?

This is. This is amazing.

And all of these peaks are climbable.

All climbable.

Yeah, yeah. Wow.

The Everest.

Let's go to the Everest.

They've already caught tour fever.

And just use your back brake. Don't use your front.

So what you want to do on these curves...

follow me.

You want to

go on the outside to the in.

So there are really three major categories of activity

the endurance activities, the strength training activities

which could be anything from going to a gym and lifting weights,

so pushing against resistance and then the lifestyle activities.

And in those lifestyle activities you also get a lot of the balance

and proprioception.

So as we age, the component that people are often missing

is that resistance training.

So muscle is one of the more metabolically active tissues

in our body.

So having more muscle burns more calories 24/7.

So people often think, well,

if I want to lose weight I should go running.

And true, it burns calories during the run,

but keeping that muscle mass elevated is important for health.

It's important for a weight maintenance,

important for our function.

So that is one that many people forget and don't

include as they're trying to stay healthy.

But that's one that we need to put in there.

Heading on to Les Saisies.

15km of slog.

Rest and recovery is is as important as the exercise itself,

and this becomes especially true as we age

and as we age, the way that our body adapts

and the recovery time that we need is actually longer.

You need to pay attention to body.

You need to understand how much rest you need.

And it is not a personal failure to need more rest.

It is you listening to your body and giving your body

the best opportunity to be as strong as it can be.

You don't care what the other riders are doing,

you just want to get up this climb and hopefully not stop along the road

but there's no shame if you do.

Nice you got it Jack. It's all flat here.

All right, we're at the summit.

Love to hear the cowbells.

You doing great. You’re doing great!

Yeah.

Keep going! Well done!

Stop start, stop start.

But made it. You kept going.

Yeah. Here you are.

Yeah. At the top.

Huge accomplishment.

So proud.

I'll be a nice cyclist soon.

I know the way now.

All the great things you could do and possibilities

you had, physically, as a younger person,

you start to lose kind of naturally as an older person.

Unless you work on it.

That is like a roller coaster.

You know, that's so much fun.

I mean, beautiful.

I mean, it's just like dying and going to heaven.

In the Tour de France,

they come down here at 90km an hour.

Don't attempt it, Jack.

We did it. Another day.

Great day.

Well, let's see what today brings.

Because the Col du Pre is a pearl in the Alps, if you can find it.

And of course, the Cormet de Roselend

this is a brute.

So, Jack, do you remember that VO2 max test that we did

at Olympic Training Center? Yeah, yeah.

Come on, come on. Faster.

You get to it jack. You can do it.

Where we sort of cranked up the workload

a little bit more, a little bit more.

We were able to measure your intensity.

And during that test, we used this Borg scale

we would say, how you doing?

You'd say easy, difficult.

And you'd point to a number here.

So four - I'm cruising along comfortably or, you know, eight

very hard and I need to take one of your breathing breaks.

If you can talk in complete sentences, have a conversation

with me

you're probably down in this very easy range.

And then when you get up here in the very hard, extremely hard,

it's like one word answers like, Yes. Stop..

And then we're going to put these oxygen saturation

meters on. As your heart pumps blood faster

there's less time for the oxygen to go from your lungs into your blood.

And so the saturation kind of falls.

So that combined with the intensity and the heart rate,

you will have a really good measure of how you're all doing on the hill.

And I promise I'll keep the defibrillator handy.

It's good to really know how to pace yourself.

And for most people, you know, staying

sort of below that threshold of the talk-test

most of the time where you can carry on a conversation is good,

but every once in a while you got to push it up higher

into that intense zone, because that's what

keeps your maximum capacity up.

But a good place to start is just to try to push up to that level

where you start to get breathless

and that tells you you're doing some work.

But that sort of intermittent activity where you go slowly

and then you push a little harder, whatever that means for you.

It could be climbing up a col like this,

or it could be just

walking slowly on the one part of the block

and then walking a little bit more briskly on the other.

And that will really help keep your fitness up.

How's everybody's breathing?

Right. Okay.

Yeah, I can talk.

You can talk.

Jack, what are you at? Four. Four!

I'm still talking.

But I think I'm moving to five.

Jack's doing great.

He's only at five and a half - heart rate 135.

What's your number Jiggs ?

Six. Six. Seven. Seven.

Okay.

Seven and a half

Okay.

Short of breath.

Steeper.

It's getting warmer too,

that increases the heart rate even higher

as your body tries to cool itself.

Eight.

I hear some heavy breathing back there.

What's your number, Jack?

Getting in to eight.

Eight. He's in the red zone.

Very hard.

What number are you Jiggs?

I need to lie down in the grass.

If you could give one piece of advice

to young people, what would it be?

I think, sports, take up sports.

Woah!

Keep going, keep going. You got it.

Besides biking, what's the other thing

that you've done consistently in your life?

Mountain climbing.

Okay, Jack.

Climb when you're ready!

It seems like you'd get very close

because your life depends on the other person.

Yeah. For sure.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You have to trust in your teammates.

That must bring you very close together.

Col du Pre. Nice job.

All this scenery

that kind of really picks me up.

Way to go! The finishing line.

I think a lot of us sort of

feel that somehow our genes are set in stone,

and that those are the things that are going to determine our future.

And there's nothing we can do about it.

And that's actually not the case.

You know, there's so many things that influence whether we are

in a healthy state or whether were suffering from diseases.

And we have many choices that we make that

do influence how those genes actually get expressed

and how the chemicals, the proteins, all of the things that come from

our genes are influenced by the world around us.

Our stress level, we know, is a really important

determinant of how the genes get expressed.

So what I think is really important is that we have an understanding

that we have the ability to adapt, we have the ability to influence.

And so we do have some choices to make.

We do have the ability to to make things better.

Incredible.

Your mindset actually has a physical change on your body.

So your mindset is not just about what your emotion is.

And that's why mindset training, mindfulness, the contemplation ways

that we can alter our health are really, really important.

And it's not really infused into Western society.

This comes very much from eastern societies.

So this term of epigenetics, it's something that we need to harness

more.

And I think it's starting to happen and it's very powerful.

When we lower our stress, it's not just an emotion.

There's a physical component to stress.

We all feel it.

That feeling of tension, that feeling of heart racing

and that has an influence

on how our bodies actually function and are disease inducing.

So there's this amazing feedback loop between mind and body

wellness and the things that we do to keep our minds healthy,

to keep our stress in check, to keep our connections with people

which are very, very important for our sense of well-being.

Our minds can either enable or disable us

from what our physical capability is to do things,

and that everybody comes with their own talent

and their own access to their inner strength.

When I'm doing

a long bike ride, I found that I could get into a rhythm

that took my body, my heart rate

and my thinking to a new place, which is almost like being

in a trance because all of the other things that are on my mind

or that I'm thinking about, I can make disappear.

And just riding that bike with the pleasure

of under your own steam and being out in nature

allows you to do that.

One of the most interesting things

we've learned about aging in recent decades is how much attitude

plays a role in one's experience of old age.

What we see is that 70% of limitations are self-imposed

based on attitude, not actually on ability,

potential or opportunity, but have that ambition.

We’ve arrived

just in time for the rain.

Today, it was hot.

Oh, before the storm.

Just before the storm.

One bolt of lightning

One with the glasses off?

Well done. Any more?

Look to me.

That's a great ride guys.

The riders are getting their form.

They're about to get their toughest climb so far.

The Col de la Madeleine is twists and turns, and it never relents.

Today should be interesting.

We're going to make a game of it.

We're going to give Jack and Jiggs a very large head start.

Tanya, Fred and I are going to do an extra col.

Let's see if we can get them.

There's such an interesting interaction

between physiologic age and chronological age.

And by that I mean how old your body is in terms of bodily

aging versus how many years you've lived your chronological age.

And they can be out of sync in either direction.

So you can be chronologically quite old

and be biologically quite fit.

And I think that we need to think about as a society when people are

older biologically than chronologically,

what are we doing to put them in that position?

Because those are usually social decisions.

And when people are younger physiologically

than they are chronologically, what is it they are doing that

we should institute at a policy level and make available to everyone

so that we can all age better, be healthier, longer,

and contributing to our societies and communities and families.

Wow, look at all you've done in

a few months! I knew you were coming over

so I did it for my favourite daughter-in-law.

all this lovely color because I know you love color.

Thank you. That's all right.

One of the great opportunities of elderhood

is that this is an opportunity to express yourself in new ways.

But this is stunning as it is.

I did my best for you?

For many people, it's that they want to be creative.

That can be music, it can be gardening,

it can be painting, it can be anything.

How about for the almost 90 year old?

Hard work?

It's hard work for a 90 year old. It's getting harder.

So look at what you've done.

But the enjoyment you get is fantastic.

Hot-lips they call that. I can see why.

Yeah.

So is this like your favorite exercise to do this?

Yes, I like it.

And, I cut the grass the other day and, it's rewarding.

There was nothing here when I came, you know, it was,

it was like a wilderness.

So 20 years ago, it was just

weeds and things. Yeah.

So it's kind of like your retirement, your passion.

My love of the outdoors has always been a part of me.

And we would just be out

and play and explore and be a part of the natural world.

And I feel like that really oriented me towards

all of the later activities and adventures that I've had,

especially in the mountains.

If I'm with people that I really care for.

So that connection of social element and nature and physical activity

is just very special to me.

And that connection with nature

adds a whole nother layer of benefit where, you know, you can see

people's blood pressure drop, hear mood elevate.

Oh, look at that little one.

Yeah. It's so sweet.

Are there any predators?

No, they're really beautiful.

You see that guy?

Big guy?

He's lounging.

I'd want to be one of those.

Yeah, it would be a good place to be.

Nice.

Right?

I think it's pretty clear that the link between humans

and the natural world, the human encroachment on natural habitats

is a really big threat to the health of the human population,

but also a really big threat to the the health of the planet.

And we can't have the health of one without the health of the other.

These these are, I think, are two crises

that pretty much every community around the world is facing.

We are suffering from nature deficit disorder,

and it

leads to a series of chronic diseases like obesity and type two diabetes,

and that some of that is lack of exercise,

and some of that is lack of exposure to the natural world.

It gets steep all of a sudden.

Can I say that I’m full of joy,

having gotten up here the first time

after 35 years?

From sea level

to this, my challenge with the altitude.

The Col de la Madeleine is known as the serpent of the Alps

because of all its twists and turns.

Jack's ambitions is obvious.

Just ride on and beat them all.

No hurry, Jack, no hurry.

Easy.

No. This is too beautiful to be believed.

Yeah.

That's great.

Well done Jack.

Well done.

Crazy.

Look at that.

La Madeleine.

So in my younger years,

I took care of

a lot of people who are having heart attacks,

and they already had their heart disease.

And you had to intervene and do all these incredible procedures.

In my later years,

I've embraced the whole concept of preventative medicine.

So it's very important as people are getting older,

that they actually spend even more time

focusing on their wellness physically fit, mentally fit,

engaged with other people, doing things that people love,

and hopefully they can embrace it with passion.

Hey, that is a good...

good speed.

That’s one hell of a climb.

I can’t believe you guys did that.

You almost you beat us here.

Thankyou, that was so good.

And where's Anne?

She's coming.

She's coming.

Okay. She's close.

Four kilometers. 10%.

Holy-molly... we got it.

Madeline continues and continues.

The Tour de France avoided this until 1969.

This is the longest distance,

most elevation

I will ever have done

and it’s day five.

So far

my legs are hanging in there.

And to be honest, I never really expected it to happen to me.

But like everybody else, surprise, surprise, I am aging too.

And you make adjustments.

But it doesn't diminish the joy that you can have out in

the environment is just slightly different decisions,

and you have to sort of feel

where your body is and what you can and can't do at this stage.

Well done! Everyone is waiting for me.

Awesome.

Super, super super.

Oh, that was harsh.

Oh, Good job.

I kept moving

the whole time.

Lovely, lovely.

Well done! you too!

The serpent is behind them now.

It's not going to get any easier

on this sixth day they climb the Col de la Croix de Fer.

This, this is a brute.

And the riders in the Tour de France simply hate it.

So as a society, we need to realize that lives

can be made joyful and safe at every age.

That assumption is key.

There's so many things that we know work well, so many programs

that have huge benefit, but we don't invest in them.

Instead, we're we're catching the new thing that's new and spending

billions and trillions on novel cures for the few.

Why not emphasize that which works

well and grow it, thereby helping the many?

So in big population, like in India,

there is a big issue of accessibility in healthcare.

Heart rate and blood pressure are the two statistics

that doctors use as indicators for health and fitness.

So if you have a banking app on your phone,

then why not a health app

that delivers the vital information back to your doctor

so that the doctor can remotely take care of you?

And if you want to maintain quality of care,

this particular piece of telemedicine

becomes very, very important.

What we all want is health care to try

and not get diseases, to not develop diseases.

And we actually know how to do this with the right food,

with the right exercise, with the right amount of sleep, being

less stressed and making career and life decisions that further that

with enough social connections, with enough joy.

We know how to do this.

But the system doesn't pay for any of that.

It wants you to be sick in pretty much all countries.

So if we prioritized health,

that's not to say we don't have treatment for disease.

We would have a lot less disease.

People say, how do you pay for this?

Well, if you have a lot less disease, your costs go down.

You could much better afford to pay for lots of people to get exercise,

for example, to have access to healthy food

and to learn how to make it and enjoy it

because you feel better when you eat that way.

I mean, do I like a good chocolate chip cookie? I do.

It’s a holistic approach to wellness

across the lifespan, which I think is something we all need.

And most societies aren't doing as well as they might.

And then we have to focus on health more than disease.

Throughout the lifespan, you will lose functional capacity.

But those people who are exercising regularly, you know,

they're noticing these changes and it can be frustrating.

You can't run as fast as you used to. You need more recovery time.

So you are declining, but you're not declining at the same rate.

And you will go through life and hopefully not reach

that threshold of disability. For people who aren't moving at all,

there's no feedback.

There's no information for them to know that they are

also on a downward trajectory, but they're not noticing.

And the problem is, is that they will get

to that threshold of a disability and then it's too late.

So if there’s were a way to get people, whether they're active or not

to understand sort of where they are on the curve of life

before they get to that point where they lose their independence

and they drop below the threshold

disability, that would be very useful for us as a society.

You lose your capacity to move, then that is one of the biggest penalties

in your quality of life that exists because you're losing independence.

Oh my God, look at that.

The one thing is being motivated.

The other thing is getting down and doing things.

You have to be able to have that opening.

Where are you going to say,

I am going to take the time to take care of my body.

Be patient.

Don't be too ambitious.

Build up very progressively.

Persevere in your activity.

Give a bit of variety.

Sure, you can last on 3,

4, 5, 6 months without really enjoying it.

You'll never go further.

So that means if you have to explore other paths to activity,

explore them.

I didn't

see the little sign one kilometer to go, but we have 0.39

miles and 110 elevation feet to go.

Oh. Not very far.

All right.

Excellent.

Well done Jack.

Lead the way! Cross the finish-line!

Amazing effort!

Jiggs!

Amazing job.

Well done.

You're not even sweating.

When you going to start working?

Wow, wow. Thank you so much.

To a cyclist

there's one mountain in the Alps that must be attempted.

It’s the climb of Alpe d’Huez. 21 numbered corners.

This is a huge challenge for our intrepid team, the Mecca of the Alps

as far as the cyclists are concerned, it's a battle now to climb

the most iconic mountain in the Alps.

You've got your professional activities, you've left

a bit of the sports, you've got your family to take care of,

and then you wake up at some point when you're 45 or 50 or 55,

you wake up with those extra ten kilos

and, that deconditioning situation and that stress.

You're 45, okay.

You're not taking an antihypertensive drug.

But I can tell you, if you continue like this

in five years, you will be taking that

hypertensive drug. You will have high cholesterol.

You will have degenerative arthritis.

You want to try change things and you'll see

the benefits of it shedding off kilos, getting active again,

building up your cardiovascular, building up your strength.

Everything's about movement.

Little things that we change in our posture and movement

habits can have a big influence on our health,

our performance and our quality of life.

There's a

way that puts stress and strain on our bodies, accelerates

wear and tear, and causes us to age before our time

simply by unloading the joints, allowing the muscles to work

well around each joint and protect it

and movement is smooth and effortless.

That really makes us more physically robust

and resilient and resistant to pain, injury and disease.

It's a matter about dying young as late as possible,

and it really is that.

And how do you stay young?

You stay young because you stay fit.

Riding up Alpe d’Huez , side by side.

You know, it doesn't get much better, does it?

Well, actually it does. Has to be so.

Less trafficky rides.

In the middle of nowhere.

Yeah. This is a little crazy today. A little crazy.

It's hard to go at a pace to

keep the group together and not get hit by a truck.

Great Jiggs.

Doing well.

Got to keep it going

now to the end.

It's really just round the bend.

Oh la la.

Come on.

Drinks and cakes just ahead.

Please don't do that, Tania.

Stopping.

Okay. Stopping.

I think I like to challenge myself.

And whatever I do, I do it for bringing my best out.

Good. Good.

How many bends done?

There’s uh...

20 bends. Still left?

Yes. You've only done one.

And you look round the first hairpin.

You're looking at a wall.

It never gets easy.

It's me versus me at the end.

When you are challenging yourself, right?

Most of the time what happens is once a person gets older,

the family starts, you know, bringing them down

and seeing that you are all you have to rest you.

You can't do this. You can't do that.

That narrative has to change.

Generally, the

changes, the biologic changes that begin to change our risk

in terms of health and disease begin happening in our 60s.

And for some people, they're horrified by that

because they don't want to be associated with old.

Again, the transition isn't one day you wake up and you're an elder.

It's insidious.

Stop pretending to be younger than you are.

Own that old age

so everybody sees that elderhood is decades long, varied,

diverse, and full of opportunity.

Day seven of seven.

We're still moving.

At 8%, I'm fine.

The minute goes over that.

Boy, this is tough.

It's almost like kind of a Zen experience.

It’s not just about maintaining the body,

it’s about maintaining the brain as well.

Jiggs! All right!

How are you doing, Jack? Good to keep going, Jack.

Keep it moving. Easy does it.

I've always liked the word fit

since I was a boy,

I knew that that meant much more than just physical fitness.

But being fit also means you're mentally fit.

Your thoughts get clearer and clearer and clearer.

That is really steep.

You know, I did this 30 years ago,

but, I didn't remember how steep it was.

Thank you.

Here's a little shot in the arm.

If he can do it, I can do it, too.

Jack can do it. I can do it too.

And it's about been an average of about between 8 and 10%,

sometimes 11%, grade.

I really felt

the joy of feeling like a little concierge,

like in the Tour de France,

trying to make Jack get up and over the passes,

and I sort of liked riding in front,

looking back and making sure everything was okay.

I hadn't done

as much riding as some people on the trip, and I

wasn't actually sure whether I was going to make it over the passes.

I think everybody has this anticipation, you know, who believe

that they don't have the ability or the stamina

or the practice to be able to perform in something like this.

And I have to say, I had a little bit the same thought about myself.

Okay.

In the shade for a little rest,

Stopping

oh oh.

We got it, though, Jack.

We're going to do it.

Keep going.

Nice and smooth.

How are you doing Jiggsy?

Good.

Hot isn’t it!

Not for a man from Mumbai.

Jiggs is incredible.

We’ve just got to keep it going smoothly.

He's had a bit of a problem with his shoe,

but we're nearly there.

Just a few more bends to go.

I knew we needed you Tom.

I hope I've only got to do a bloody shoe.

The soles came off...the rubber sole.

I think it got melted in the heat.

It looks like it's more than the Mumbai heat

Special Indian drama.

Mumbai drama.

A nice smooth roll

all the way to the top with your new shoe!

Great Jiggs.

You’re on the final Alpe d’Huez bend.

Every time I have seen that, you know, runners come together,

cyclists come together

there is a sense of belonging.

The camaraderie is what keeps you going.

And everyone brings different strengths.

And then,

you know, we all did this together and this felt like a team, like,

I love that working together to accomplish a goal.

When you get there,

don't think, oh, I'm old, my life is over.

Think of, oh, I'm starting elderhood

a another few decades of life in which I have all sorts

of opportunities I've never had in the preceding decades.

What am I going to do with it and be as ambitious and imaginative

as you can afford to be,

but don't let what's in here limit

what you can do with the rest of your life.

We see this in so many people,

and really the key thing is what's inside

so much as possible.

Woop! I can see the finish line.

Oh, that's a finish there. Alpe d’Huez or bust!

Come on, Jiggs, come on, come on, come on, keep going.

That is it?

Allez! Let’s go together.

First climbed back in 1952.

They never went back for another 24 years with the Tour de France.

Well done Jack!

Jiggs!

Well done! That was mammoth.

I think I'll be glad to have a good sleep over the weekend.

And not have to get up and ride tomorrow.

Just take a little break.

So if Jack has done this, I think anyone can get up tomorrow

and start doing some form of physical exercise and keep going.

Anyone in the world can dare to dream.

Reinforce your confidence

that you can do those things or other things as well,

so that it isn't fear that stops you from trying.

And if you can probably do it, think of the other things

you can do as well.

Jack a man, a grim determination, a fit man.

Jiggs, I think, with no experience of riding a bike,

he epitomizes why we all want to achieve.

The mountains are extreme, but what an achievement when you do it.