Staffordshire World Champion Walter Fowler has plenty of pedal power left
Aged 89 and having just been crowned world cycling champion for the third time, you might think Walter Fowler would be ready to put his feet up.
You could not be more wrong.
Barely had he removed his shoes from the pedals after winning gold at last month’s World Masters Track Championships in Manchester, the great grandad from Kinver was already turning attention to a new target.
Next year, when he enters his 10th decade, Fowler will attempt to set a new hour record in the over-90s category. To do it, he must beat the current best distance of 34.4 kilometres, set by American Carl Groves.
“It is going to be a monumental ride,” says Fowler. “I know I am going to have my work cut out. But I know what I have to do.”
Groves’ mark, set in 2019, is only slightly slower than the over-85s hour best held by Fowler himself.
It is one of eight world records he has owned in his career. Another is the 2000 metre pursuit, the event in which he won his third world title, albeit in a time which left him just a little disappointed.
“I would not describe it as being one of my best events,” he reflects. “My world record at over-85s is three minutes and four seconds. I won gold last month in 3.17. My training had been up and down and I knew when I entered I wasn’t fully fit.
“But then there is no point being disappointed in one’s health. If you have problems, your ability to work through them and come out the other side is what counts.
“There is no point being buried under tears and crying. I could and should have been faster, if I’d been fitter. But the point is, my opposition still didn’t beat me anyway!”
Regardless of the time, the title still represents another glorious chapter in a remarkable sporting career which only truly began when Fowler was in his 70s and has since seen him become Britain’s oldest cycling champion.
A keen track racer in his youth, he quit the sport in 1958 to concentrate on a career in marketing but returned half a century later, curious to see whether he could compete in Masters events. He won his first world title at the age of 74 in the 200-metre time trial and though he has gotten older and the opponents younger, the wins have kept coming.
Fowler’s winning time at the recent championships was quicker than several riders in the age category below.
“Track cycling was my first love,” he explains. “After I retired, I joined Halesowen Cycling Club and a few of the members suggested I have a go at the Masters events.
“The first one I competed at was held in Sydney and I won gold.
“When people ask what my secret is, I always say I was blessed with good genes. My mother lived to 103. That is the basis. I have a good, healthy body.
“But I also have an attitude of healthy living. I eat well, I don’t eat rubbish. I exercise well, whether I am riding a bike or not.
“Mainly, my sport and activity is cycling. I have done it for so many years. It is just the way I live.”
No matter what obstacles have been thrown in his direction, Fowler has kept on going. A knee problem sustained in 2019 kept him off his bike for more than a year, while more recently his determination been hampered by a urinary tract infection.
He trains every other day, believing in the importance of rest between major efforts. His perseverance is fuelled, at least in part, by a promise made to his wife Margaret shortly before her death in 2014.
“The morning after she died, I was up at 5.30 on the turbo, training for a world record,” he says. “That was because I had resolved in my mind and with my wife that I would keep going. I knew it was the right thing to do.
“So many men when they lose their partners lose interest in life and prefer to sit in an armchair.
“As soon as they do that, they are on their way to dying.
“There is the incentive. I like the challenge and I like the specific type of exercise. It fits in with my outlook on life and is what I promised my wife I would do.
“I seem to have proved I am good at it. So why not keep at it?”
That is what Fowler, now a member at Stourbridge Cycling Club, intends to do as he turns full focus toward the hour record. It will require a switch to endurance training as he looks to once more conquer one of the most unforgiving challenges in any sport, at any age.
“I believe I’ve still got it in me,” he says. “I hope to have a few more years doing the best I can in Masters events.
“If I cannot race, perhaps I shall find a mountain to climb.”
