Original subtitles

(applauding) (booms)

(gentle music)

(rustling)

(clanking) (whirring)

(dog barking)

(clicking)

(engine humming)

- Just gotten up to go for a training ride.

Want to knock over a hundred Ks this morning.

I'm a bit pissed off, 'cause

Kate's had a go at me for waking up so early

and waking her up.

That's the pot calling the kettle black.

She wakes up at 4:50 at least two days a week

to go to the gym and here I wake up at 5:10

and she's cracking the shits.

Saying I can ride all day, on a Sunday.

I can't do that, I've got the kids.

So I've gotta bloody look after the garden

'cause we're trying to sell our house, too.

Then I've got the dog scratching at the window

'cause it wants to go for a walk,

but bike riding comes before walking the dog,

that's for sure.

(upbeat music)

- Had my first race and that was it.

Bang, gone, done, I'm on.

Where can I get my next advantage from?

Can I buy some carbon wheels?

Should I lose five kilos so I can go up hills faster?

- Everything had to be carbon, you know.

Looking at micrograms and taking off

your valve stems to you know, save the weight.

- I've shaved my legs since I started cycling

because I've got chunky legs

and it actually makes you look slightly leaner.

- They're not out hunting, are they?

They're not doing that sort of primaeval thing anymore.

This is a way of being a man.

- [Cyclist] They're trying to get their career going

and they're trying to get their family going.

Then they all of a sudden look down and they've got a belly.

- Definitely middle aged.

- And proud of it. (laughs)

- If you're on the cusp of turning 40,

you could be in for a rather bumpy ride.

- There are ways to battle through your midlife crisis

and the answer might be a combination of Lycra

and a chamois hammock.

- [Derren] These middle aged men,

in their funny little shoes tippy-toeing

around cafes in Brighton and South Yarra.

- MAMILs, Middle Aged Men In Lycra.

- That's right.

- Did you say mammals?

- Mammal?

- Human, whale or...

- MAMIL?

- MAMIL tends to be used derogatively.

Road cyclists with all the gear and no idea.

- You couldn't have missed the growth

in Middle Aged Men In Lycra.

The phrase that it's the new golf always frustrates me.

(groaning) (bikes crashing)

Nobody takes skin off on a golf course.

- I feel fantastic, I feel fit, I feel nimble.

54 years old, but I love nothing better than,

than chasing after a 25 year-old.

- I feel like I'm flying.

There's nothing better than with a group of friends

riding along country lanes at speed.

- I'm not going to deny it.

That I am absolutely a MAMIL and I am a happy MAMIL.

(cheering) (upbeat music)

- Traditionally, bike riding was a very working class sport.

It's certainly changed.

(energetic music)

- [Phil] Cycling has changed.

And no one has embraced the sport

more so than middle aged men.

In 2010 this phenomenon was given a name.

- The research that we do involves

talking to a lot of manufacturers.

There was this phenomenon that

they were seeing strong growth in sales

of bikes to middle aged men.

There was this term doing the rounds:

Middle Aged Men In Lycra.

We thought that was a great acronym to use, MAMIL.

- A MAMIL is a middle aged man in what fabric?

- Lycra.

- [Tom] Yes.

- [Phil] The MAMIL has become part of popular culture

and in 2014 MAMIL was officially added

to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The MAMIL has even taken to the stage.

- MAMIL is a redemption play.

It's about a guy who's a property developer,

who's not a very nice man who joins a peloton,

discovers Lycra and the freedom and the joy of Lycra

and the joy of actually having a group of men

that can actually solve his problems.

Ah yeah, good day.

My name is Brian Cook.

I'm a property developer.

I'm married, I've got two kids and a chihuahua.

(audience laughing)

You don't have to wear Lycra, do you?

- You wouldn't get me in Lycra

if you gave me a million pounds.

- No one looks good in Lycra.

- [Woman] No.

- I think it's pretty scary, actually.

- Lycra's just so over the top.

It's like, yeah, I wear Lycra.

- [Man] Lycra. - It's like if you put me in a pair of Speedos,

it would not look at very nice.

- It makes you pour your body into something

which is going to show every lump and bump.

And it's like learning to go to a nudist beach

and not worry about it.

- It's just embarrassing in public.

Look and see everything.

- There's a hotel restaurant in New Zealand

which has taken the step of banning Lycra cycling shorts.

They're wearing, essentially, their underwear.

- Perhaps they should wear a cod piece.

- You want just baggy shorts over whatever

makes them comfortable holding their junk in.

- One great thing about Lycra.

You get to show off your wonderful legs, so...

- Looks a bit of a wank when you first start riding,

but it does make sense, actually.

- I had like a German flag,

but I thought it's a little bit too much.

But I think I should show where I'm from.

- After being formerly 345 any time I put on Lycra,

it's a win for me.

(audience laughing)

- I may look a little bit chubby in Lycra.

I don't care.

I'm out actually doing something

about my body, my mind and my health.

(audience applauding)

(energetic music)

- Cycling is an expensive sport.

Somebody might spend two or 300 pounds

on getting a bike as a student,

but the MAMIL will spend two, 3,000 pounds and upwards.

- [Phil] Something that has caught

the attention of manufacturers.

(energetic music)

InterBike, one of the world's largest cycling expos,

is in full swing.

More than 700 companies are here

to show off their latest products.

- Cycling is a very big business in America.

Our industry is doing close

to $6 billion in total revenues.

- We do have an older demographic for the higher end bikes.

Much like people want a high performance race car

when they get in their 60s they can afford it.

The same goes for the high end road bikes as well.

- You know, it's fun.

Everybody wants the best stuff, right?

You know, you want a Ferrari.

You can never afford it, if you can, you get it.

I think it's the panache of it, if you like.

Sort of the bragging rights to say to your friends

hey, my bike cost 10,000, 12,000 dollars.

- Colnagos are rare enough on a group ride.

Whenever someone shows up with one they all crowd

and just like ogle the thing for a while.

- The pro guys, they're not paying for their product, right?

They're getting their product for free.

It's the amateur racers that are purchasing our product.

- We're definitely a very white, middle aged industry.

It's what we have., it's what we are.

Middle Aged Men In Lycra.

I'm one of them.

(laughing) (chattering)

- We'd have 30 riders here easy.

- We're the Fat Boys cycling group.

20 years old. We are about to go for a Saturday morning ride

up into the hills.

Fat Boys started with a small group of fathers

from the local primary schools.

We don't take ourselves too seriously.

It's middle aged men trying

to keep themselves in some sort of shape.

But also there's a lot of support.

Not just having good fun but we all go through

interesting times in our lives

and that's an important part of that support network

that you get from a bunch of guys

that look after each other.

(gentle music)

- [Cyclist] Got all these guys all over the road.

- [Cyclist] Yeah, beautiful formation.

- [Cyclist] I've lost 12 kilos, mate.

- [Cyclist] 12 now?

- [Cyclist] Yeah.

- [Cyclist] Jeez, you must have been fat before.

(laughing)

- [Cyclist] Oh, you've done well, mate.

- In the Fat Boys we've been going so long,

the actual average has crept up.

So it would be now 53 or 54 years old,

which is kind of on the top end

of being a Middle Aged Man In Lycra, I guess.

I'd say that the culture has dictated

pretty much the bloke that ends up being a Fat Boy.

- Morning.

- [Jim] Typical Adelaide Fat Boy would be a professional.

(laughing)

Now I don't know why that is.

I suspect that is because those of us

who have started fitted that democratic

and therefore we invited our mates.

(chattering)

- [Cyclist] Go on mate, let's go now.

(gentle music)

- There is no hard and fast mission statement,

except that we are recreational.

It's the weekend warriors that we cater for

and it's been pretty successful.

You know in a way I'm kind of proud.

I think I'll be remembered more

for being the President of the Fat Boys

than I will for my family.

As much as though I love, they're my priority,

that's the reality.

- My philosophy's always been when you're descending,

go fast enough to kill yourself

because what a shame to just get hurt.

(phone ringing)

I think the law kind of found me more

than I went looking for it.

Okay, it's really Order 60-60 as with the enforcement.

There's days that I just hate it, I just despise it.

But then there's other days when it's just kind of shh!

Don't tell anybody that this, you know.

They'll all want to do it.

(gentle music)

If you're busy as a barrister and when you're trying

to get established you crave work.

I'd really fallen for this whole Superman complex

hook, line and sinker.

You know, I could go to work, I was good at what I did,

I got reinforcement there and I was just so detached

from, you know, my family.

And you know I wasn't doing too well,

really I suppose as a consequence of you know,

the relationship breakdown and you know,

I think my head space was really pretty fucked up.

Well a turning point for me was my cousin who said,

I've got this old bike, interested in borrowing it?

That's how I got started.

(energetic music)

I think it was just really all about trying

to come to terms with myself, really.

It's given me fitness, it's given me new friendships.

(laughing)

I met Ann, she has a common interest in cycling,

so that's been terrific.

- I don't quite know why we like riding

with each other because,

(laughing)

because sometimes, because I'm a lot slower than Doug.

I like to ride at a certain pace,

whereas he likes to push himself.

(gentle music)

- It's winter here.

It's cold.

But the sun was out this morning. I thought, oh yeah.

Tap out a few Ks.

20 Ks down the road, hail.

You can hear it banging on your helmet.

Great.

Good experience.

- [Phil] Doug has signed up for the ultimate MAMIL holiday:

a 10 day cycling tour through the mountains

of Spain and France.

He will ride some stages of one of the world's

toughest and most gruelling races:

La Vuelta a Espana.

(applauding) - Bravo.

- I'm actually genuinely concerned about this trip.

Probably the biggest physical challenge I think

I've probably ever had to deal with in my life.

(phone ringing)

- [Phil] One of Doug's greatest challenges

will be climbing the legendary Col Du Tourmalet.

His body will be pushed to its limits.

- I'm still getting a little bit of pain,

more actually post-ride.

- Now it was your plan that we'd inject it today?

- [Doug] Well, it's up to you,

but if we can do that today,

that suits me to do it today.

- That's fine.

- [Doug] I don't know whether it's daunting

or whether it's sort of funny really,

but a 53 year old bloke who wants to go

and ride up and down big hills

and you know maybe age is catching up on me.

This might be my last chance, who knows.

(gentle music)

Just going to finalise the packing

and then be heading slowly towards the airport and Spain.

- [Ann] I'm recording, yeah.

- There's the key to the letterbox.

- [Ann] Okay.

- Are you excited?

- I am excited.

Going to miss you.

(sighs) You have to tell me how you're feeling.

- I'm going to miss you, Doug.

- [Doug] I'm going to miss you too, Ann.

I'll see you when I get back.

Be safe.

- See ya.

(foghorn blaring)

(upbeat music)

- [Phil] Meanwhile, in Manhattan cycling

plays a role in another relationship.

- We were both on a dating site on the internet.

And I put my profile up and he hit on me almost immediately

because in my profile I said I baked bread

and he said he was very impressed by that.

- I said, if you bake bread, we need to talk.

- He had cycling pictures on his profile.

He warned me he would be wearing

an atrociously loud bicycling jersey

and I'd be able to pick - It was very loud, yes.

him out.

- This is a LeMond Maillot Jaune.

It's kind of a gold lame colour.

I bought it for Jim so that he would

have access to a bicycle.

- He wanted me to catch the bug so he bought a bike,

and it was really sweet.

But no, I didn't catch the bug.

- He is deaf to the seraphim calls of the bicycle.

- Mm-hmm.

There's two things he loves in life.

Me and his bicycle.

(upbeat music)

- When I leave the apartment and I get on the bicycle,

I immediately feel relaxed.

I think human beings like to be outdoors.

They like to have green things around them

and they like to have the sun on their faces

and have the open road before them.

Bikers up.

Thank you.

I've always thought men in Lycra looked good

no matter what age they were

and it's shocking to me that there aren't more gay guys

involved in cycling just because of the clothing.

- It's shocking, just shocking.

(Bob laughs)

(horns honking)

- It was 1994 and the Gay Games

were coming to New York City.

We were going to have bicycling events.

We didn't have any cycling groups,

so, you know, I started a cycling group.

- Hey!

Nice to see you.

- Happy Pride.

- [Man] Happy Pride.

- [Bob] Oh, Robert's here.

- Do you smell?

- A little.

I just cycled 33 miles.

Growing up older in the gay community is unique.

Because it is a very youth oriented culture,

many people felt left out as they aged.

- It's not so much about needing a gay specific club

because you're not going to be accepted elsewhere.

If you want to find other people who like you

that's where it comes in.

(gentle music)

- Ye-haw.

It's become more of a social club really, for me

because that's the people who I hang out with.

It's a great little group.

- Being middle aged and single for me

it's an opportunity to stay connected to like-minded folks.

I don't go to bars anymore.

Bars are kind of already passe.

And I certainly don't play on Grindr.

(upbeat music)

- You know, I originally thought

it was going to be like a competitive thing

and we originally called ourselves

Fast 'n Fabulous Cycling Team.

That got tired pretty quickly.

At one point I thought, oh yes, we're the gay club,

the gay bike club in New York City.

And now there's a dozen gay bike clubs

in New York City, so whatever.

We're here, we're queer, get used to it.

(inspirational music)

- I like to ride my bike.

A lot.

So it's not a big surprise that my spiritual journey

is not really a walk with Jesus, but more of a ride.

It can be blindingly fast, joyfully exhilarating

and simultaneously balanced and out of control.

In a way, it's sort of like my form of worship.

I'm not a very good singer.

I don't feel like I'm glorifying God when I sing.

But I do feel like I can do that when I'm on a bike.

- [Phil] In 2007, Tim started

a Christian cycling group in Minneapolis.

- Welcome everybody.

We start every ride with a prayer.

Six days you shall labour and do all your work,

but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord, your God.

You shall not do any work.

Exodus 20:10.

All right.

We've had Jewish people, atheists, agnostics, a Wiccan,

all join us on rides.

- [Woman] Here we go!

- [Tim] I love the community that it provides.

We feel part of something.

- Oh, they were taking off.

They just weren't leaving you.

I told you you could do this ride.

Part of what we're trying to do is bring our faith

into absolutely everything that we do.

- Here we go.

- [Tim] Praying and inviting God to come with us on the ride

is just something that seems like an extension of that.

- No, it's okay.

I'm here for the fellowship, not the speed.

(laughs)

- I also like solo rides where I'm just alone

with my thoughts and my prayers.

I really enjoy that quiet time.

It helps ground me.

I love the speed.

I'm not gonna lie, I wish I was faster, but everybody does.

It can get 20 below very easily here.

I have a hard and fast rule not to ride

if it's below 10 below.

(energetic music)

Studs front and back.

Pretty aggressive tread to go with the studs.

I wear a snowboarding helmet and snowboarding goggles.

I'm in the middle of Venture Harcourt Challenge

trying to raise some money by riding in this weather

for a good charity.

Yeah, keep going.

To me cycling embodies a lot of what Christ

was talking about with being in community with one another

and we kind of check each other

and make sure that we're being the best men

and husband and father that we can be.

(upbeat music)

(laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- So today's ride obviously I'm leading it,

so it's a social ride.

These guys are always teasing me because,

because they say I only want to do the social rides.

I don't want to do all the hard hustles claiming the hills,

but it's true.

(cheering) (bells chiming)

- [Cyclist] Car up, car up!

(horn honking)

- A lot of our rides, they're party rides.

We have made up music trailers.

And as we're going down people are looking at us

and they start clapping, they're taking pictures.

So it looks like everyone's having a good time back there.

We welcome everybody.

We're not looking down at you

because you have a $50 bike

or we're not looking up at you

'cause you have a 10,000 dollar bike.

This is about sharing an experience

in the streets of Los Angeles.

(speaking in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

There's not many Latino

or Hispanic cycling clubs in Los Angeles

even though Hispanics make up a large portion

of Los Angeles.

(whistles blowing) (cheering)

(gentle music)

When I started the Eastside Bike Club,

definitely it was started to help me.

My weight was nearly 400 pounds

and the doctor told me that he's done everything

that he can to save my life,

and he knew I had a lot of friends.

A lot of those friends will be at my funeral.

So I just thought that it wasn't time for me to die yet.

I contacted a couple of friends.

Told them, I need your help,

I need your support to start bike riding.

Could you guys join me?

All of a sudden the group grew

to 20 people, 30 people, 50 people.

People started coming to support the cause, to support me.

(chattering) (gentle music)

Shortly after I realised that it wasn't just for me.

We were helping a lot of people.

In Los Angeles we have alarming cases

of diabetes and obesity.

And cycling has been a fun way to help fight it.

We call the streets of Los Angeles our gym.

We've created a change in our community

by changing a lifestyle.

Being morbid obese you don't see what you're missing

until you're able to do it again.

- It's Thursday night and that means it's football night.

We're going to Beacon Hill, which is Harry's local team.

Here he is, this is Harry.

- Hello.

- Harry plays in the Under 12 Flames.

I'm one of the coaches and we're doing that

for about an hour and a half or so.

That's another reason why

I can't get out on my bike on Thursday nights.

(gentle music)

There was a point in my life

where I felt I needed to do something

about my fitness levels, about my weight

and also that I needed to start doing stuff for myself.

For ten years, I'd been living predominantly

for other people.

For my wife, for my kids, you know,

establishing our family unit.

And there was a home video of me.

I'm wearing this top and I was shocked,

actually, at how I looked.

And I thought, God, that's quite sad.

If I carry on this path,

it's gonna get worse and worse and worse

and do I really want to be this sort of

massive bloated bloke who can't even kick a football

around with his son because I've let myself go so badly?

It was purely by chance my employer at the time

had a bike to work scheme and I thought,

okay, well I'll get a bike.

(energetic music)

What I love about cycling is the freedom it gives you.

You're on your own, you're on the road,

you can go anywhere you want for as long as you like.

Time to think.

Time to contemplate stuff.

Figure things out in your head.

There's really no feeling like it.

- Rupert rides only on his own, under his own speed.

He doesn't want to be directed

or influenced by anybody else.

I'd like him to ride with other people

because I think safety, which is something

that worries me terribly about him going out.

(car horn honking)

- It's not helped by all those videos

that are uploaded all the time

of all these incidents that happen.

And it's like everything's amplified now

in terms of the danger.

- But that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.

- No, of course not, but then I could walk down the road

and something could happen and you know you can't--

- But it's more likely.

- I don't know.

- On a country lane on your own.

- I'm not sure, I'm not sure it is.

I'm not sure it is.

♪ Your ass ♪

♪ I'm on a motherfucking bike ♪

♪ I'm on a motherfucking bike ♪

♪ Sharing my aggression what I do ♪

♪ Everyday I'm riding Tour De Fuck You ♪

♪ Banging on hoods and kicking in fenders ♪

♪ A right-of-way-aholic on a permanent bender ♪

♪ Running red lights at the fat intersection ♪

♪ Cutout seats protects my erection ♪

- Three times I've been attacked.

I was knocked down deliberately by a taxi driver.

(horn honking)

Fuck!

In England, it's his word against you,

if you have no evidence.

(horn honking)

- [Man] Fuck you!

- On various occasions I've been assaulted,

knocked off my bike, abused.

- [Man] You fucking cunt, I'll do you.

Fucking scraped my fucking van.

You fucking idiot.

- I turned the tables against the idiots

and the shit heads on the road.

I utilise all the latest technology, GoPro cameras

and I'll bring them in front of the judges and the police

and then I'll report it to their boss so they end up sacked.

(horn blaring)

As an extra safety device,

I've got two truck horns fitted up to a 12 volt battery

so it goes like this.

(horn blaring)

- Now that's 150 decibels.

- If they don't see ya, they can definitely hear ya.

- I reported about 110 people in one month.

Why are you on your mobile phone, sir?

You should not have it in your hand.

It's against the law.

(horn honking)

If you violate the traffic rules,

I will either give you the red card

or I'll send evidence to the police,

bust you and prosecute you.

Red card.

- [Dave] Fuck's sake!

Read the fucking signs!

I'm merely reporting what I see on the roads.

I'm not going looking for it,

but I seem to find a lot of it

and the police are quite happily

using my video evidence to prosecute the drivers

and I think that's a good thing.

- [Phil] Adelaide Fat Boy, Jim Turner is well aware

of the dangers on the roads.

- We try and police each other.

There's a potential for having a good little accident

when everyone's riding closely together.

In the Fat Boys we're very conscious

of our impact on the motorists.

- [Cyclist] Car back!

- [Cyclist] Car back.- [Jim] Car back alerts the group

that a car's about to pass them.

- [Cyclist] Fuck, there's some bloody bikes coming.

He's gonna take em out.

Shit, he's still going.

Fucking hell.

That guy was an idiot.

- [Cyclist] Yeah.

- We notice badly behaved cars

who deliberately try to scare you

and for those drivers out there who do that, it works.

It does scare us.

Look, there have been a lot of accidents.

Usual injury is a collarbone

because they come on their shoulder, it snaps off.

But there are a lot of others too.

The guys fall off and lose a bit of bark.

But, you know, invariably they're back on the bike

within a month or so.

(dramatic music)

- I think it would be fair to say

that all the wives of people that have had big accidents,

I think you'd find most of those wives would be happy

if they never saw another bike again.

(gentle music)

- I bought a new bike, a mountain bike.

I've been riding a road bike for 21 years

and decided to give mountain biking a crack.

And 11 kilometres into my first training ride,

(thudding) Ow.

I fell off my bike.

(sirens wailing) (dramatic music)

Technically I've broken my back.

Midair I thought, no, this can't be right.

You know, I can't believe it.

Crushed my L3 vertebrae.

(sighs)

This is pretty bad.

This is serious stuff.

(gentle music)

- And all the wives, partners get really cross

that they can put themselves in that sort of danger,

but what can you do?

(sirens blaring)

- [Bob] When I'm riding in Manhattan what I say to myself

is every 15 feet there'll be something

that you didn't expect.

There's a pedestrian who pops out from between two cars.

There's a pothole.

- [Jim] Or doors.

- There's a car pulling out from a parking place.

- It's like a very bad video game.

- That's the way I view that. - It's like a video game.

- And before you know it, you're dead.

- You're not dead.

- Most people we know have had an accident on a bike

and it's been quite serious.

- It's not most.

We know of people who have--

- A lot of people. - Who've had

unfortunate incidents.

- Came off my bike and broke six ribs and four fingers.

- Mine was my riding partner cut across me

and brought me down when we were trying

to have a sprint to the finish.

- 'Cause I got a brain bleed

and that was from a bike fall also.

- I've had broken femurs and backs

and collarbones and shoulders.

Not much, ankles, not much I haven't broken.

- I broke my collarbone and fractured two ribs

and a bit of a collapsed lung.

And Jim was behind me

and he went down as well and got concussion.

- Knocked myself out, completely wrote my bike off,

took out my whole shoulder blade

and you know, it's a dangerous sport.

- [Phil] On the outskirts of Melbourne

veteran cyclist Thommo isn't letting his latest accident

keep him off the bike.

- I've had a heap of bike accidents over my time

starting off when I was about 16.

Got run over by a car.

I had a fall in a bike race when I was about 35

and broke the socket of my hip in three spots.

I got run over by a car about 4 years ago.

Broke my leg right through here.

Had it set in a frame like that for three months.

- His big scar down the front.

So he had tubes coming out of that.

But you've been hit on that freeway twice.

You got hit by that prime mover.

- Oh, that's another time.

(gentle music) - [Ruth] Yes.

- I got run over by a truck riding to work one day

and he just didn't see me and--

- You were lucky.

The mirror flicked him out into the grass

and didn't take him under the truck.

So someone definitely is looking after you.

- Lowest moment over the last 19 weeks

has really been when I went to the specialist

expecting there to be some healing

and he basically told me that

the injuries were exactly the same

as two seconds after I hit the road.

They actually hadn't healed at all.

(solemn music)

I've decided from how my neck feels

and from a lot of previous accidents,

it's time to do something and the time

for sitting around like on your bum is over

whether the doctors like it or not.

- A couple of times very close to to being it

and it's very hard to kind of come back

and watch him get back on the bike.

Ultimately, I'd rather him be happy and on the bike

than sitting on the couch, you know, an unhappy man.

Are you sure you don't want me

to follow you in the car again, Dad?

- Yeah, I'm sure, Sarah. - Okay.

- I'll be all right this time.

- All right. - Thanks a lot.

- Be safe, good luck.

- Bye bye. - Bye.

- Bye, dear.

I'm staying down the back or right up the front

so that when they do fall off

'cause most of the time somebody does

because they're not watching what they're doing,

I'm well out of the road.

The novice riders are people

that are taking up riding as a midlife crisis type thing.

And they seem to be fairly normal people

till they get on a bike and then

they seem to turn into complete idiots,

forget all the road rules.

So those rides are scary.

You think something's going to happen and it usually does.

(gentle music)

I think if I fell on my neck with a neck brace on,

hopefully my neck's strong enough

to take the fall and I'd be okay.

Falling off does not worry me in the absolute slightest.

(birds chirping)

- I rode before I met Vern.

Sometimes he thinks he taught me how to ride a bike,

but that's not true.

We'd only been married probably 3 years,

I think, when he had his accident.

(dramatic music)

- I'm on a downhill and going pretty fast.

Then I got a flat and I wobbled there.

So as I'm braking and getting over,

my front wheel dropped down in the ground

and then flipped me over.

Instantly, it's like flipping a light switch.

First I work and then I don't work.

- Vern's accident was hard.

I think what helped was that he was so positive

from the moment he woke up.

- While I was in the hospital

they gave me a Sports & Spokes magazine

and it showed hand-cycling.

And I said, wow, yes I can.

Vicky and I hopped in the car and went to an Abilities Expo.

Tried out three different handcycles.

Decided which one I wanted to get and ordered it right then.

And it's been full speed ahead since then.

(energetic music)

I can ride 4,000 miles a year.

Sometimes I fall just a pinch short.

I've been as high as 5,000 miles in a year.

So it's a lot of time in the saddle.

This is a Lightning.

It's got a pivot underneath so

that's how you steer it is by leaning.

And this is a top end XLT Pro.

I had them do the little fancier wheels, the carbon wheels.

I've had this one at 39 and 1/2 miles an hour.

Okay, we can go a little faster now, Dale.

- [Dale] Okay.

- Keep going, keep going.

I got all kinds of gears left.

- Vern thinks he can do anything and everything

and I'm like, wait a minute.

You can't.

- Well. (energetic music)

One time I rode over towards Ankeny on a weekend

and a little later, a little later,

a little later she called me.

Where are you?

Well, I'm in Slater, Iowa.

Well that's 86 miles round trip.

Or I might go the other way down into Des Moines of a night.

Do it by myself.

Maybe that's a little stupid or maybe that's a little brave,

but normally I don't have a problem with doing that.

I'm going by and I got a problem, I'll ask somebody.

- We've had to give a lot of things up that we love to do.

But cycling wasn't one of 'em.

The tandem's good because we can stay together

and I don't have to worry about him.

Running a left or right?

- I think left.

- Left? - Yep.

- [Vicky] Stopping.

- I like riding a tandem because it lets us get caught up on

what's going on during the day a little better.

- What I like about riding this tandem

I'm in control.

- Yeah.

- That's a good thing.

- Yeah.

- For you.

- For me.

Vern still thinks he's in charge

even though I shift, I steer, I brake.

I'm in charge.

I'm in total control of the bike.

And Vern's still yelling directions at me.

- Yeah. - I go, really, Vern?

(energetic music)

- We take that tandem quite a few places.

Last year we took it to Arizona with us

and rode for a couple of weeks

and it's a work in itself to get things ready to take,

I'd say, you know, okay, a challenged person

to take them on a road trip.

And quite frankly, we more adventurous

than most of the people that we know that ride bikes

because we're the ones that are going on trips

and going somewhere else.

I just love it.

- [Phil] Australian barrister Doug Shirrefs

has arrived in Spain ready to begin his cycling tour.

- [David] Welcome to Spain, everyone.

- Yes. - Yeah.

- [Phil] Eating the food and drink of the region

is a big part of the MAMIL holiday.

More importantly they need to fuel up for tomorrow's ride.

(gentle music)

(speaking in foreign language)

Doug's holiday is all about experiencing La Vuelta.

Spain's most famous bike race.

(energetic music)

Today's stage is a 156 kilometre road race.

Doug will ride the course ahead of the professional riders.

He's starting early, before the roads are closed.

- See how we go on the flat.

Could be a lot of fun today,

but it could also be very, very hot.

- [Phil] Even with a head start,

it'll be a huge challenge to stay ahead of the pack.

- Well give it a good crack and see if we can stay

in front of the Peloton all day.

We should get a two and a half, three hour start on them.

With a bit of luck, we'll beat them to the coast.

- [Phil] Tour operator, David Olle

has been running cycling holidays in Europe

since the late 1990s.

- If we were to aim at somebody it would be a male, 50s.

Wouldn't have been cycling 10 years.

- [Doug] We were right?

(solemn music)

- I've had people come along who just want to ride 20K

and then jump in the car with me and ride along.

I've had people who want to do 160 K

and see the race pass and have a bit of time

in the afternoon having a drink

and watching a bit of the race.

The Middle Aged Men In Lycra,

they're going to be around for a long time, I think.

- [Kahn] Come on, Dougie!

- Thanks, is it powder, just water?

- No, that's alright, that's great.

- Yes, Dad.

- [Phil] The temperature is now

a blistering 41 degrees Celsius.

That's 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

- [Man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

- We can rehydrate them, get some food into them.

- Ah!

(speaking in foreign language)

(horn beeps)

- Here comes the caravan.

(horn honking)

- [Phil] The publicity caravan has been a part

of Europe's grand cycling tour since the 1930s.

The convoy travels ahead of the race

handing out freebies from sponsors

earning its nickname, the caravan of crap.

- Well that's the caravan.

That's why people come out here

just to look at that, don't they?

- Now I'm convinced there's a race coming.

- I don't think we'd beat the race.

Oh, we're a chance, maybe.

- No, you're a chance 'cause you've nearly done

all the climbing.

- [Doug] If he says we're a chancing--

- 83 to go.

- [Doug] We'll give it a go.

(gentle music)

- [Phil] Doug's time has run out.

Just short of the finish line in Penascola,

he's ordered off the course to make way for the Peloton.

- I reckon I was a chance, mate.

Think I would have made it.

- [Man] Yeah.

(applauding) (cheering)

(dramatic music)

- One of the great things we know about anything

to do with tourism, leisure and sport

is a tremendous capacity to reinvent itself

to create things to do.

You see endless stories now, people in the local press

oh, I'm doing this kind of charity ride.

We were going from maybe having a couple of hundred

people turning up to 2,000 people to some of these events.

- [Woman] Welcome to the 2016 Maca Ride to Conquer Cancer.

We'll be getting underway in just about--

- [Phil] Back in Australia nearly a thousand cyclists

are giving up their weekend for a charity ride.

One of the groups supporting the cause is team MAMIL.

- Hey, Chet, how you doing?

- Our story is a story of two mates.

Me and my best friend, Franko.

- He's the man. - He's my man.

- No he's the man. - He da man.

- We da men.

- He's the man.

(gentle music)

We'd known each other since the age of 14.

And over a period of, you know, 15 years

we both ended up over in Western Australia.

Every year, Franko would have a Boxing Day party

at his house.

And one particular year, 5 years ago,

Franko was quite withdrawn and not really celebrating

and we couldn't quite figure out like what's going on here?

He's not very bubbly.

And the scenario was that

he'd discovered only a week before

that he had throat cancer.

(solemn music)

- When we thought everything was going to be better,

he actually got worse.

So that was a bit of a challenge then, wasn't it?

- Yeah, it was hard. - That was a year later.

- I was feeling very helpless.

I just didn't know what to do or you know,

how I could help him in any way, shape or form.

And I was sitting back one night at home

and a Ride To Conquer Cancer ad came on telly

and I thought, well if I can do anything

I'm going to get on my bike

and I'm going to raise 2 1/2 thousand bucks

for my best mate.

(energetic music)

I went on the first ever Ride To Conquer Cancer.

I rode by myself, I had nobody else around me.

Finished that ride and Franko

was standing there at the finish line.

He was not a well man at the time.

He'd been through chemotherapy, he'd been through radiation.

You know, we hugged and we cried and everything else

and then he sort of disappeared.

And what he'd done was he'd turned around and walked off

and went over to the registration desk

and he signed himself and myself up

for the following year.

(solemn music)

- At that time I didn't know whether

I was going to be cured or not.

No matter what happened, he's not going to ride alone again.

I won't let that happen.

- [Craig] From that moment, Team MAMILs was born

and before we knew it we had 16 people on the road

all decked out in MAMILs kits.

Away we went, it was amazing.

- [Cyclists] One, two, three, MAMILs!

- [Phil] Franko has been cancer free for 4 years

and Team MAMIL has become a regular fixture

on the Ride To Conquer Cancer.

- Ready, set, ride!

(energetic music)

It's the MAMILs!

And off they go.

Take care out there.

- [Phil] Today, Craig and Franko

will be riding 100 kilometres south to the town of Mandurah.

- [Craig] We've never claimed to be fit.

We don't speed down the track.

We just sit on 25 Ks an hour and have a good time.

(horn beeps)

- [Cyclist] Everybody awake now?

- [Cyclist] Come on, pedal!

- [Cyclist] Good day to be a MAMIL.

(thunder clashing)

- [Craig] Every person that's got a kit on

has raised 2 1/2 thousand dollars each to do the ride.

So the Team MAMILs, over the last 5 years

we've raised about $200 thousand for this event.

Everybody within the team has been touched by cancer

in one way, shape or form.

It just silently creeps onto your world, the older you get.

Being a middle aged man as you grow older,

the more it affects you.

- [Boy] Are you ready?

- I'm ready, I'm now ready.

- Oh, look at that stance, James.

About 10 years ago I had a series of symptoms.

(cheering)

Numbness and falling over.

And being a bloke I didn't go to the doctor.

Didn't do anything about it at all.

And then I woke up one day

and I couldn't see through my right eye.

(solemn music)

Very quickly it became evident something was badly wrong

and I was diagnosed with MS.

I was absolutely convinced that I was not going

to be able to have children and as for sport, forget it.

You know, I was just counting down

the days to the wheelchair.

And I thought, well I've got MS, woe is me.

And then I realised that I needed to do something about it.

When I ride my bike, I don't have balance issues,

so I bought a road bike.

And very, very quickly I was massively into it.

(chattering) (laughing)

- Julia, 7:30 rolling, yeah?

- [Phil] As Richard began riding with some mates

in his local area his enthusiasm caught on

and a cycling club was born.

- It was a really positive reaction.

And then we started talking about that real male thing of

ooh, what would the kit look like?

I really like what Eddie Merckx used to wear.

You know, we want something classic.

And you start riffing about it

and you're just playing at first

and you're saying, yeah, the kit will be that.

Then someone mocks up a kit.

And you know we can actually do this.

(gentle music)

We look bloody stupid and know we look bloody stupid

and we're just weekend warriors

trying to set our own best times

and challenging each other the same way you do

when you're at school.

And as a bloke that is, it is spiritual.

It is a spiritual need.

The thing with MS is it robs you

of fundamental things like seeing properly.

You have to come to terms with the fact

that you're never going to see that well again.

You know and they say, oh, you might get better,

but you know what?

You don't, not completely.

My symptoms have always been down the right side of my body.

The right leg's kind of sitting there and saying,

thanks for the ride.

But you know what?

I'm still reasonably quick.

I don't know, maybe I should go for the Paralympics.

Maybe I'm some sort of...

Maybe I've got the best left leg in the business.

But that is MS.

(gentle music)

It's been awful in the past.

Right now, it's pretty good

and I think that's 'cause I ride my bike.

- There is something going on with maleness in society,

about what it means to be a male

and also linked to wider issues about maybe health

wanting to still be an active person

and I think cycling has become a vehicle for that

because it's just accessible.

You can just go and buy a bike and then go riding.

I think when you start to embrace that

you get into what might be then

the more interesting parts of that culture,

the stylization of it.

The seduction of the equipment,

the need then to be better than you once were

and there's always a reason why we can be better

than we once were doing a sport, isn't there

and the answer usually is we can buy some product.

(birds chirping)

- [Richard] This is what I call shed two.

I would have a shed but it had to have things

like garden equipment, camping equipment,

family stuff in it.

So I needed something which was purely

for the important stuff, my bikes.

(gentle music) This is a day to day workhorse.

It's a Bianchi, I love Bianchis.

This is my winter bike.

Which brings me to the latest bike.

It's just a dream.

- Well I've got 11 bikes in total.

- Well I've got about 13 bikes.

- What's the rule of bikes?

- It's always-- - And one more.

Whatever you have plus one.

- Bike's worth, probably about $300 thousand or up.

- Six and a half to seven, maybe.

- Just placed an order for a 9,000 Euro bike.

- If I don't buy something every other week,

then that is an odd week.

- Winter clothes, gloves, lights.

- I thought I'd treat myself to new wheels, just, you know.

- Lots of jerseys and you start stacking those up,

I probably got $7,000 in jerseys.

- In terms of what you can spend,

you can easily, you can lie.

- My wife doesn't know about the extra thousand

for the wheel set I upgraded to.

- You just don't tell them.

(laughing) - I just have it delivered to work so they don't know.

- 'Cause you told me that you got that bike in a good deal

and it wasn't top of the range,

but the guy in the shop said it was.

And then he followed that up by saying

yeah, most of the wives that come in here

haven't been told how much their husband's bikes were.

- I do have guys pay some in cash and some on a card,

you know, so that they can tell their wives

it was only the amount that was on the card.

- Occasionally I'll go through the bank statement

or whatever and say you know, add it up.

- And I get very defensive.

- I'm asking him where this money's coming from

and he would say to me, it's just on loan.

And there's no money involved.

- You know what, it's hard to imagine something in life

that is more expensive than a really good carbon bike.

- But you, my love, are it.

- When you go back in history and you try and say to people

what was leisure, they try to define it.

And I think if you were to say what's a MAMIL?

I think it's that there isn't one identikit,

but it's the things they will all do.

So they will acquire this, they will be there.

They will have the coffee stop.

They will tell the stories

as if they know Chris Froome, it's Froomey.

They don't go to Mont Ventoux.

It's oh, I did Ventoux.

It's this casual kind of style and approach

of almost like personal acquisition of things.

So they can buy their ultra-expensive bike.

They can spend tonnes of money on their equipment.

They can train and they can project this out

into the wider public every time they go out.

(energetic music)

There's a phrase called following

in the footsteps of giants.

They want to go and do the events

based around the races of the pros.

And then they want to tell everybody about it.

That side of it I'm not so sure about

because we've moved almost into cycling

becoming a packaged holiday.

- [Doug] If I was comparing this to going away

with Annie on a holiday,

so we were in France and Italy last year

and I've intentionally not been taking many photos

because there's a lot of things that I'm seeing

that I'd really love to experience with her.

(birds chirping)

I got a bit of a cook about that

because she loves photos and she'd be happy

for me to take photos, so...

It's radically different.

You know, this is a very self-indulgent thing that we do,

but by the same token, you know,

she's pretty cool about it.

It's the MAMIL experience, isn't it, you know?

This is what we live for.

(gentle music)

- [Phil] Today is La Vuelta's individual time trial

and it's a chance for Doug to see

the world's greatest cyclists up close.

(applauding) (cheering)

(energetic music)

- That's a good descent.

They'd be picking up big speed.

They use the gears so well.

Ordinary blokes like me, we don't use the gears that well.

We're banging away, you know, a couple of gears at a time.

These guys are using every gear perfectly.

Here comes another one.

(speaking in foreign language)

Here's this one.

Look at this, I mean...

They are whizzing by.

These guys are fast.

They're going off their heads.

(speaking in foreign language)

Smooth.

Really smooth.

(cheering) (applauding)

The place has gone mad.

The place has just gone...

It's gone mad.

There he is.

The great man.

He's on the steak, Contador!

Can he do it? That's it, I mean, my life's complete.

My life is complete.

I have seen Alberto Contador,

the maddest bastard in the whole thing.

Full gas on a time trial straight.

(upbeat music)

- There's an interesting point to be made

about the whole social environment of cycling,

which MAMILs can fit comfortably into

and one is that it's intrinsically white.

The other thing, there's a part of it

is being intrinsically male.

- 90, 95% men, I don't really know why, but it is.

- I guess the testosterone, isn't it?

We're more competitive.

- Blokes, going as fast as they can.

It's not that welcoming to women, is it?

- Because they are intimidating.

They push you off the road.

There's just like a surge of testosterone

and corporate middle aged money ride past you.

- It's a bit like our careers, really.

We've always been the minority in our careers as well.

- Apparently maybe I could be a middle aged madam in Lycra.

I don't like the idea of being a madam.

(laughs)

- MAFILs.

We are MAFILs, aren't we?

- Yeah. - But I actually quite like the middle aged MILF in Lycra.

(laughing)

- I can't think of any men in our club

who wouldn't want women on the ride.

But it's about getting women to the start of the ride.

- What advice are you going to give me this time, hmm?

- What does happen in bunches sometimes

is that men will mansplain things to you.

- Now when a Warrugal riders get up the road,

the other Warrugal riders

don't chase. - Don't chase.

- Do you understand that?

- I know that.

- Middle aged women I think will worry

about what they're going to look like in Lycra.

Because you're bent over,

whether your bum's going to look big.

So they're very worried about how they're going to appear.

And they are worried that they won't be fast enough.

- Being the sole female I really didn't want them to think

oh, you know, we're waiting for Karen.

So in the back of my mind was always don't be last.

Men are competitive.

I know when I pass one of the guys

I can hear them grunt as I go past

and I think, yes I've passed them

and I know that they're gotta to try and keep up with me

and try and pass me further down the road.

- No one wants to be chicked,

although it happens quite often.

More often than we care to admit to.

- This harks back to the work

that we do with boys in early childhood.

If a girl beats them

then they have to go and show

that that is just some sort of aberration

and they have to actually go and beat them

because in their mind a man shouldn't be beaten by a girl.

- For a given person,

they're going to have their reasons for riding.

And I think some people need to win

and they want to ride and they want to race.

I think some people are born to race.

- I always get really nervous at races like this

far more so than say the divisional championships

at the weekend where I wasn't worried at all at the start.

- [Phil] After a long day at the office

42 year old father of two, Andy Critchlow

is preparing for a local Masters race.

(dramatic music)

- Bit of an arms race as well,

bike-wise here, you'll notice tonight.

You could fund a small country

off the back of the amount of gear that you've got here.

But these guys take it deadly seriously.

We're coming here to try and get a result.

We'll see.

- Ten laps as normal.

This is a working airfield.

You need to keep to your own side of the road.

There is a Top Gear bus going round tonight

so there will be more cars on the circuit than normal.

Best of luck.

Make sure you keep an eye out for each other

and have a safe race.

- What tends to happen here,

you get a lot of attacks. People trying to break it up early on the race.

And the people tend to attack early on

because at the end of the day we're all old

and it takes us a little bit longer to warm up.

I got back into the sport about two years ago,

made a comeback after almost 17 years

out of competitive racing.

As a young lad I'd raced for Great Britain.

I'd been one of the top 18 year old riders in the country.

I set some national records, won national medals

and you know one day

I can't really explain why

I just chucked my bike in a hedge

and walked away from it and joined the army.

I didn't think I was good enough, in all honesty.

You know I saw the guys who were making it at that time

and I thought, well I'm never going to be that good.

(gentle music)

I'd kind of taken the view when I hung up my bike

that that was in the past that I'd done this

and, you know, I had nothing left to prove with it.

In actual fact I did, I had a lot left to prove.

I gave it up much too young.

I hadn't done with the sport at all.

Cycling's a bit like a caveman must have felt

when he was like hunting deer.

(birds chirping)

The finish line is like the quarry at the end of it

and you haven't eaten for three weeks and you're starving

and if you don't get across that line first,

then you know it's not just you that's going to starve,

it's your whole family, so there's a lot on this.

- [Man] Come on, come on.

- You're racing to catch up with this deer

that's running away from you.

How do you replace that?

How do you replace that feeling of the chase?

(bell ringing) (energetic music)

You know I want to prove that someone in their early 40s

you know can realistically compete

at the highest level again.

- [Woman] Ooh, no.

- [Phil] Andy finishes in the pack

after helping his teammate to a third place.

- [Phil] But his actions on the track

have upset a fellow competitor.

- I told you what I think.

- When I get angry, when I want to win

I can push pretty hard.

It's win or lose, it's all or nothing.

And you have to put in that really extreme effort

to you know, to win.

You devote your whole life to the sport

and you've got to if you want to be any good at it.

- [Cyclist] See ya, mate, cheers.

- Which is tough for me and it's also tough for my family

because you know they've got to make concessions as well

for me to do this.

I think it's brought us together more as a family.

It kind of gives you a collective goal in a way.

- I'm not sure I'd call it a collective goal.

(laughing)

- Maybe not.

- [Geraldine] You did talk to me about it and said

you know I realise that this is going

to take up a lot of time.

But I wouldn't say it was (laughs)

a family decision that we--

- No.

Just back from today's ride this morning.

Now the chaos starts 'cause it's Saturday

and the kids have got to go swimming

and as you can see, lots of tidying up to do.

There you can see my daughter, Ella glued to the iPad.

She won't move.

(gentle music)

You know I love the fact that I've got back on the bike

and I love racing and I love beating guys

that are half my age, but there's a cost.

There's a price that you've got to pay for that.

You know I've got 60 hour weeks that I've got to work.

Gotta pay the mortgage. You've got a lot of worries, a lot of pressure.

You know I don't want anyone to get their violins out

because it's my choice, but it's tough, it's very hard.

And it's far easier just to sit on your ass

and do nothing and just you know, get fat.

And just accept that you're middle aged

and you know you're gonna get old.

And I don't wanna do that, I really don't.

- Can MAMILs be addicted?

I think the answer is they can be addicted to a point

where it's unhealthy for them

and unhealthy for other people.

(energetic music)

All that's important to them is themselves

and their own sense of place.

They can be unnaturally competitive.

They can take that competitiveness to extremes.

One you could argue is diet and nutrition.

Training.Ordinary MAMILs training 20 hours a week.

It's what the pro does.

So I think some people it's their new obsession.

You know it consumes them.

- [Phil] Adelaide Fat Boy, Jim Turner

has been off the bike for eight weeks

after breaking his back in a cycling accident.

- [Jim] This is a shot of my back.

A CAT scan was taken the day of the accident.

You can see from the image

that my L3 vertebrae has been crushed.

I was flat on my back for four and a half weeks

as part of the process of repairing that bone.

(sighs)

Fortunately the spinal surgeons have recommended

that I didn't need surgery

so it's been a process of slow and careful rehabilitations

for that bone to repair itself.

- [Phil] Jim is expected to make a full recovery.

But he's still a few weeks away from rejoining the Fat Boys.

- There's no way he will stop riding.

I mean, I'd rather he didn't.

As I said, I can't stop him and I know he'll do it, so.

- I want my wife to be happy and content.

If she doesn't want me to ride my bike um,

I'd give it some consideration.

(laughing)

(gentle music)

- This is a bed linen that my wife bought

for our wedding anniversary last year.

A lovely gift to receive so I can now sleep

amongst the bicycles, which is great.

- I love it when I find a decent bike T-shirt.

That's always a good one.

I bought him a...

What was it, it was made in India?

I had to order it online

and it was made from aluminium cans.

And it's a little bike that sits on his desk.

It's so cute.

That was a good one.

It makes it easier for birthdays.

Chocolate, wine and bike things.

- Tonight I'm going to do my review of the Lumos Helmet,

which is a smart helmet I backed on Kickstarter.

I'm going right, same again.

Well I quite like sharing that with other people.

It's got a removable rear mount.

It'd be nice to have had an option

to mount them on the handlebars themselves.

I do have followers.

I mean, not a huge amount, but I do get pretty much

a couple of comments per video I put up.

This is a review of the See Sense Bicycle Lights.

- Clearly it's something he needs to do.

But I worry that I'd rather he

was doing something social sometimes.

He likes to share.

He likes to share what he's discovered, what he's found.

(sighs)

(camera shutter clicking)

He puts those horrendous images.

- No, no, no, no, not at all. - Yeah, yeah.

- There's the selfies

when you're really sweaty and disgusting.

You might not realise, yeah, that.

- [Rupert] Yeah, that's helmet hair.

- [Louise] It doesn't matter.

They're all helmet hair. They're all awful and don't post them.

- I'm just going to get out for my quick lunchtime ride.

- [Louise] He'll go out for a bike ride

and he comes back in.

He'll say hi and I'll say hi.

And then the next thing he'll go into the study

and he'll start blogging about it.

And I just see his back for hours.

- But I have streamlined

my blogging process now, so. - Yes, yes.

I mean, you could do your blog

on the train when you're commuting.

- It's not that easy.

Okay.

- Just a suggestion, you know.

(birds chirping) (cows mooing)

- [Phil] In regional Australia Jayman Prestidge

is the recently elected President

of the local cycling club.

- As soon as they said, right, you're President,

I said righteo.

It's my way or the highway.

(upbeat music) - [Phil] He has big plans.

- It has been 148 miles an hour

and we've done four years of work in 10 months.

Doubled the membership.

Had all the Velodrome funded and clean.

If something needs to be done, it's gotta happen.

- One of Jayman's crazy ideas as President

is we need a new kit.

And he says we look like Teletubbies

and it's very 1970s or 1990s or something.

It's not stylish anymore.

But, you know, I think it's a good kit.

- First of all this orange sliver

represents the rolling hills around town.

- The blue represents-- - The sky!

- Slightly bigger hills and the sky.

Yep, the beautiful blue skies.

(laughing)

Or here.

So it's a slimming effect on the rear end.

- You've gotta give him little token victories along the way

but we've actively tried to undermine him.

- Unanimous.

I'm also a competitor and being the President

actually takes my eye off the ball

of my own competitive aspirations in wanting

to go out there and ride well.

(chattering)

I'm trying to out-psych my competitors

by looking totally professional today.

The aim is to get a sweat on the brow before I start.

- What I like about racing against Jayman is

he's physically strong, but mentally weak.

Turn around and say, gee, you're looking tired.

You look a bit sick today.

You're not going very well.

300 metres from the line he blows up

and I ride past him and beat him.

- If I don't come across the line for a win today

I'll be pissed off.

It's as simple as that.

Can't let Fat Monk beat me, that's for sure.

- [Man] Welcome all, to the Shady Creek scratch race.

We've got four grades going, A, B, C and D.

- [Cyclist] All right, let's go.

Away we go, boys.

(energetic music)

- Cycling can affect his mood in a way

that if he comes home from a race and he has won,

then he's very happy with himself.

He'll thrive off that for quite a few weeks

and likes to tell everyone what a great cyclist he is.

- [Woman] Woo hoo.

(panting)

- Oh fuck.

- When I do the numbers,

I think you'll find I might have won.

(laughing)

- I went shit.

- If he loses a race he can be very down on himself

and I'm not training enough and I should be fitter

and if I was doing this I'd be better and...

It'd be good if he won a little bit more than he does.

(laughs)

- You can only try, though.

If you let me train more,

I'll be able to win more. - No.

- Yeah, it's as simple as that.

- You do enough training.

- The more I train, the more I win.

- Mm.(dramatic music) (birds chirping)

- It is a real fine balancing act.

I can see that if you got quite serious about it,

it could take over and it could become a problem.

- [Jennie] Well where to begin.

- Yes, do.

- [Jennie] It does quite dominate our lives

because it's like training for a marathon or something.

You have to put in hours and hours of training.

If we didn't have young children

then it wouldn't be a problem.

- In the mornings he's always out,

so it's sometimes a bit more difficult

'cause Mum as to manage it all on her own.

- They sometimes go away to different places,

which I don't like.

(camera shutter clicking)

And it's always near my birthday, which is the bad thing.

- You were asking us to come to all the races, weren't you?

But we went to one and stood in the rain for three hours

while he went past once every 45 minutes or so.

- I don't, it didn't rain. I don't remember it raining. - It did rain.

It really rained.

- I wanted him not to ride on a Sunday morning.

Just something trivial, maybe my birthday.

Mother's Day.

And he would say why are you giving me

a hard time for riding my bike?

- I'd love to spend four hours every Saturday morning

going off and doing something

that made me feel fantastic,

but I don't because I'm at home

picking up the pieces.

- But you won't wear the Lycra.

- (laughs) No, you're right.

- I used to think he was actually doing work work

'cause I'd be like seriously the kids

have just vomited and the house is on fire.

But I'm doing stuff.

And then I see in the reflection in the window

that he was like just designing T-shirts

with his friend's face on it saying MAMIL yeah.

- It started off as a really good hobby,

which was brilliant because of his MS,

but I think the danger is it's tipping into an obsession.

- Is it like an affair?

Does it become bitter?

It probably does. I wonder how many divorces are out there

because of a bike rider.

Any statistics?

Can't really do statistics on that, can you?

- Mm, yummy.

- Mm. I think there are a couple of ways of approaching it.

One is that indeed the cyclist changes

and does less cycling if that's what they want.

On the other hand you have your own life.

You have your own friends, you do your own thing

and that's not necessarily bad.

(bells ringing) (birds chirping)

- [Doug] A reasonable night's sleep, which surprised me.

I thought I'd be a bit nervous,

but yeah it starts in earnest today.

- [Annie] Yeah, where are you?

All I'm seeing is red.

- Oh, sorry, yeah, yeah. - I see nothing now.

Oh wow.

- [Phil] Australian barrister, Doug Shirrefs

is making a call to his partner, Annie

back home in Melbourne.

- I didn't go to work today either, so that makes two of us.

(laughing)

(gentle music)

- [Phil] Over the last week,

Doug has enjoyed the ultimate MAMIL experience

following the famous La Vuelta Espana

and riding through some of the most scenic

and challenging landscapes in Spain.

His holiday is nearly over.

But before it ends, one final challenge awaits.

- They're really big hills.

You know you look...

You might look out here.

You just, I think you've just got to not think about it.

All right.

So.

Try and get the tape on.

Get some support under the patella.

You know I really don't carewhether people think I'm a total wanker.

I know that this knee can get so painful

that it hurts to walk on.

You can get a new knee, but that's a 12 month project.

So you just get used to it, you just,

You just, you just suck up the pain.

(hissing)

- We're gonna ride the famous climb of Touramelt,

which is probably the...

It's not the most famous climb in cycling,

but it's the one that's been in the Tour de France the most.

(speaking in foreign language)

(gentle music)

- [Phil] Since 1910,

many legendary battles between the greats of cycling

have been fought out on the Col du Tourmalet.

Rising from the Pyrenees to a height of 2,115 metres

that's nearly 7,000 feet,

the Tourmalet is one of the hardest climbs in cycling.

- We'll get a group photo.

- [Phil] Today the challenge of conquering the Tourmalet,

a 32 kilometre climb lures MAMILs

from around the world who all want to emulate their heroes.

- My technique for this will be try

and just get comfortable, try and find a rhythm.

If there's some longer stretches,

maybe have a little bit of a look

and try and feel your body a bit.

But otherwise I'll be trying

to just look at the ground in front of me

because otherwise you start

looking at it going up too steeply.

You can, you know, it can mess with your head.

- The most important thing is, don't peak too early

because the last two kilometres are the steepest.

Just ride very much at your own pace.

- Bonjour.

(solemn music)

(laughs) Oh fuck, look at the hill.

(birds chirping)

Makes you want to believe in something

other than your legs.

Oh, this is beautiful, really beautiful.

- [Phil] Meanwhile, on the Ride To Conquer Cancer,

best mates Craig and Franko

have nearly reached the halfway point.

All they need to do now is find the camping ground.

- Bloody Garman's flat.

Where are we going, straight?

- Go left, guys!

Just follow the people like everybody's saying, mate.

We're going straight through.

- [Craig] Just follow Franko.

- Jesus.

I'm wet, I'm tired, I don't want to ride.

- [Cyclist] Car up!

- [Cyclist] Car up!

- [Cyclist] Well done MAMILs!

(applauding)

- [Woman] To the MAMILs, congratulations!

You guys are absolute legends.

- [Phil] It's taken more than seven hours

for Craig and Franko to ride the 100 kilometres to Mandurah.

(chattering)

- [Craig] Cheers, boys.

- Good on you, mate and well done, well done, gentlemen.

- [Cyclist] Cheers. - I ride the ride because I ride for those who can't ride.

But my heroes are guys like these guys.

(applauding)

Coming from where I've come from where I got very sick

every year this is special to me

and I get to ride it with my mate.

And it's for a good cause.

(chattering) (solemn music)

- This is my Mum.

She's a,

a 15 year breast cancer survivor.

One of the main reasons I do the ride.

- Good job, Paul.

(energetic music)

- [Cyclists] Woo.

- It'll be another hundred odd Ks today.

As you can see the weather's beautiful today,

so hopefully we'll have a bit of a tailwind

to blow us back to Perth.

- Let's go, fellas. - Go MAMILs, rolling!

- Hey.

- I got both good today.

- [Paul] Good, mate, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, living the dream, tiger.

- Oh man, my ass.

- A lot of guys complain about their aching backsides.

My secret?

Aussie Butt Cream, man, Aussie Butt Cream.

- Thanks, mate.

- [Phil] Craig and Franko are making good time,

but the finish line is still a few hours away.

On the other side of Australia,

local cycling club President, Jayman Prestidge

has just taken delivery of a long awaited item.

- We've got our new club kit that we're releasing.

So now we've got to get out and race it.

It's not a kit unless it's been raced.

(energetic music)

- [Rob] I'm wearing the new kit tomorrow, Jayman.

- Why don't you wear it today?

Look how good it is.

- I don't give a shit what you look like at the coffee shop.

When I'm in a race and I look quickly over my shoulder

I want to be able to see the Warragul guy.

- And you don't think that mountains- - No!

- [Jayman] You don't think that's unique?

- [Man] No, it is.

- The shit I've had to put up with over this

is bullshit from blokes like that.

- [Woman] Three, two, one.

Woo hoo.

(energetic music)

- [Jayman] Cycle racing's actually about inflicting pain

on other people.

He who can inflict the most pain will actually win.

- That's probably my biggest weakness.

Mentally I actually will go, ah, is it worth this?

And as soon as your body and mind thinks that, you're out.

It's been a fucking disaster for me today.

Mentally destroyed.

- [Rob] Ah, there's always next week, eh?

(solemn music)

- I've really run hard during the time

that I have been President and I've just been relentless

in delivering what the members have wanted.

I'm someone that always says, yes, yes, yes

and I keep adding things on and on and on.

And I know when my body is telling me

that I actually do need to just back off

and slow down a bit.

My health is everything and my family is everything.

My cycling is a very, very close third.

I've announced that I'm going to stand aside as President.

That's gonna allow me some breathing space, I suppose.

(gentle music)

- It's not all about cycling, it's about having fun.

- Ah, you surrender!

(laughs)

- I have to say I was pretty relieved

'cause it was taking a lot of time away

from the family and kids.

(laughing)

- If you've got a bureaucratic environment

where you've got to tick off 16 people's wishes well

it's probably not me.

I'd rather do a role where I don't have

to expose myself to that.

If I get on my bike it's ultimate relaxation.

Even if I'm working hard

and heart rate's hitting the roof

that feeling is better than feeling blue or down.

- There is an increasing recognition,

if you like among the medical profession

that cycling can be good for a lot of medical conditions.

For example, depression is very good example of that.

It's something that seems to affect an awful lot of people

in the age group that defines MAMILs.

(solemn music)

- Back in 2012, I wasn't planning

to be around for the whole year.

I didn't have anything to live for.

I'd actually just ridden home.

It was a hot day.

Got home and ah,

I pretty well snapped at that moment

over the end of a relationship

and ah,

literally just collapsed in the shower.

It wasn't heatstroke, It was just...

Yeah, I know at that moment I sort of just broke.

Um, yeah.

And sort of yeah...

You know thought about how, you know,

different ways how I might wrap things up.

But um, yeah.

Just in the back of my mind it was just,

well hang on, I've just,

I've got a ride in a couple of months time.

And looking forward to it as well.

Looking forward to post-ride, sitting down, having a coffee.

Hearing the guys laughing and having fun

and having a dig at each other.

It sort of made your day.

So yeah, just having those people in your life.

Yeah, it was something to look forward to every other week.

(energetic music)

I told someone about it 12 months later.

That was the thing that kept me around.

- Certainly we supported him by communicating

and talking to him and saying that's,

you're not alone, mate.

- It was the only thing that I had to look forward to.

It's just a good feeling to be out there

and working together as a group.

It's just a good feeling 'cause you're on your game.

You're riding well and you know

the other guys you're riding with,

nothing's gonna go wrong.

I've got a couple of the guys that are more like brothers.

It's riding with the guys that I ride with,

it's certainly what a, yeah, why I'm still here.

(birds chirping)

- [Phil] In the Pyrenees, Australian barrister,

Doug Shirrefs is halfway up the Tourmalet.

- Just stay with yourself.

Don't get too far away from yourself.

(panting)

- Come on Dougie!

Looking great!

It's a lot of work from here on.

The next kilometer's 7%.

There's a lot of switchbacks and it's steep.

- [Phil] Doug is battling more than just the mountain.

He must also overcome the pain in his left knee.

- Oh well, here we go.

(energetic music)

Oh, it's gonna hurt now.

- [Phil] In the final section of the climb

the gradient increases to an unforgiving 13%.

(gentle music)

- Approaching the summit Doug is forced

to zigzag in an effort to keep moving.

This is a last resort before he will be forced to walk.

- [Kahn] Oh, Dougie!

(frantic music)

Oh, that was a bloody excellent effort, excellent.

- I just bloody missed the three hours.

Fuck.

Oh jeez, I tell you what, my legs are screaming.

(indistinct chattering)

(gentle music)

- [Phil] Doug has conquered the Col Du Tourmalet,

one of the most difficult climbs in cycling.

As the French would say chapeau, Doug.

- I almost stopped, you know,

I reckon probably a K and a half from the top.

I've been doing a bit of trainings.

But without that training, I wouldn't have made it.

A really great achievement, epic achievement.

I guess this is what I thought

a cycling tour would be all about.

You know...

Go back to mowing lawns I suppose

and practise riding the bike and...

(laughs)

Take life less seriously.

- Are MAMILs a fad?

I think probably they aren't

because they've been around for a long time now.

20 years ago I wanted cycling to be popular.

I wanted everybody to cycle.

Do I want that today now?

Not so sure.

But it's great.

There's all these people buying bikes,

there's all these people going cycling.

The link to charities is one reason why

it probably won't just fade away and disappear.

(energetic music)

- [Franko] 13 kilometres to go.

- [Phil] In Western Australia,

the MAMILs are making steady, but slow progress.

- You're out of the saddle again, man.

What's going on down there?

- I think I've got that sweet spot.

I'm not getting off the seat now.

- No, no.

A few MAMILs coming through.

Jump on the MAMIL train.

- We start our peloton and our peloton

we call the MAMIL train.

As we go past people, we always encourage them

to hook in with us 'cause if you hook in behind us

makes it easier to ride.

- Car back!

- [Cyclist] Car back!

- Clear me right!

- [Cyclist] Ease up, dudes.

Runs out, guys, runs out!

- Clear back.

- Inside rider, inside rider!

- [Cyclist] Hold your line.

- Single!

Single file!

Go to single ladies!

- Pump it, pump it!

(chattering)

- [Franko] When I get on my bike I think how fortunate am I.

I love riding my bike.

I love being a MAMIL.

(gentle music)

(groans)

- [Jim] Just going for a little spin.

See if I can stay upright.

I'm a little bit nervous, I must admit.

So wish me luck.

- Stress is massive, it's a negative energy.

You can think yourself ill.

Now I can only give you anecdotal evidence about my MS,

but if you looked at me 10 years ago

and you look at me now, it's like I'm in a different world.

This is like the solution.

This is the stress buster.

This is your moving meditation.

(chattering)

- We've seen plenty of pain in the hills.

We've seen the time trial.

We've really experienced just about

all of the other aspects of the tour

apart from this, the finishing stage.

It's part of it, you wouldn't miss it.

(cheering) (applauding)

I'm going to be getting some very wonky photos.

It's just a common feature of middle aged men

that their lives can get a little bit out of whack

from time to time.

And I'm happy to put my hand up and say

yeah, my life did get a bit out of balance for a while.

It did get a bit out of whack.

That's about the time that I actually discovered cycling

and cycling helped me get my life back into whack.

- Hey, Jimmy. - Hey.

- Welcome back. - Bruce, yeah.

- How are you, Tony?

The guys have all pretended to be pleased to see me again.

- I'm delighted. - Are you?

- Yeah, of course. - You're the man, though.

- Probably. (laughing)

- There's a lot of benefits to riding,

but there's a very real risk of injury.

Interestingly enough, we get back on the bike again.

- I could have gone out and bought a fast car

and looked, you know, looked a bit ridiculous

in a Porsche of whatever it is.

But I decided actually you know once I started cycling,

it just recaptured everything I loved about cycling

when I was a kid.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughs)

- [Richard] I think that it's something

that's a fundamental male need.

You know, mate-ship.

The bond that I have with the people in cycling

is the strongest bond I've had with another group of blokes

since I was at school.

(chattering)

- We never thought we'd be still riding

at 60 so I was saying

there's no reason we shouldn't be riding at 70, or more.

Maybe if my wife will let me,

I'll still be riding at 70.

- [Woman] Let's go, MAMILs!

(cheering) (applauding)

- Gav.

(laughing)

- Jason.

This is the bit where I've told Franko not to cry, okay?

(laughs)

- We try not to, anyway.

(gentle music)

- I am a cardholding member of the MAMIL cycling club

if it exists, and if it doesn't exist, it should exist.

You know if guys in their 40s get out there,

get on the bike, get healthy, get lean, get mean

go and start sticking it to some 20 year olds.

I mean, that's what it's about.

It's about proving to people that age is no barrier anymore.

(triumphant music)

- It's all about, you know friends

and family and mates and hanging out.

Having coffee on weekends.

- Yeah. - And looking after each other.

That's what it's all about.

One, two, three.

- [Cyclists] MAMILs!

(upbeat music)

- The ultimate goal is if I can stay in shape

and everything works and she gets retired

our plan is to make our way across the United States.

And we'll just take our wheelchair

and our gear along with us and ride from place to place.

- For a little club just east of Melbourne,

this would have to be the best looking kit

in Australia, hands down.

Orica Greenedge were on the phone the other day

just saying, hey JP, where'd you get your design done?

- Who's the fastest in the group?

That's a really good question.

We've got a couple of guys.

Let me have a...

I'll go round like this.

No, no, no, maybe.

Maybe.

Definitely not.

Maybe.

Nah, fail.

- What's it for?

- [Craig] Fastest in the group.

- Oh, nah.

- [Craig] Nah?

- I think I once looked at his blog.

There was a description of how

to overtake safely a horse on a country lane,

which I thought hysterical,

and I thought he was doing, so it was a joke,

which it clearly wasn't.

- And it's quite important

because the more cyclings going there

and they whiz up the horses,

scare the horse, the horse bucks, kick the cyclists,

they crash into a car and then it's awful.

So it was educational.

- [Louise] It was quite funny.

- [Rupert] You've banned me from wearing Lycra

at public occasions.

- Well he turned up at my son's football in his Lycra.

I don't think he even took his helmet off.

He sort of waddled in on his shoes

that make him look like a duck

with the cleats on them, and his full on Lycra

and this was before any of the other husbands

had started doing it or anything

and I was a bit embarrassed.

- I went, hi, hi!

- We have a tradition of welcoming new Fat Boys.

So Ian, congratulations.

- 10 rides. - Thanks, Jim, thank you.

- All right, it's alright, mate, it's alright.

(laughing)

And as such, we'd like to present you with the royal.

- [Ian] Thank you very much.

- Royal robe.

(applauding)

Welcome, Ian.

He put his hands in his pockets and go out

and buy a Fat Boys uniform.

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)