The Greatest Woman Cyclist of All Time

At 50, Jeannie Longo is showing no sign of slowing down as she won her 56th national champion’s jersey, successfully defending her French national time trial title in Saint-Brieuc on Thursday.
The Grenoble native easily defeated a strong field of challengers, covering a 23.5-kilometer course in 33:42, some 30 seconds faster than second-placed Edwige Pitel. Marina Jaunatre took third, with a time more than one minute off of Longo’s.
Both Longo and Pitel ran up against a UCI commissaire who found their bikes to be in violation of technical rules. Longo's husband and coach frantically made final adjustments to her bike and was able to bring it into compliance, just five seconds before her start time. Pitel was forced to ride a spare.
"It was frustrating,” said Longo. “The commissaire wanted me to withdraw my bike. I finally made the change, but that was just a few seconds before the start.”
Pitel said that despite her last-minute bike change, she credits Longo with being the strongest rider on the course on Thursday.
“I will not say that I lost because of the bike,” Pitel said. “Jeannie was stronger than me. Finishing second to Jeannie Longo is nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm happy with this outcome.”
Longo, who will celebrate her 51st birthday in October, earned her first national title 30 years ago. She narrowly missed the podium in last year’s Olympic time trial in Beijing, finishing less than two seconds out of third place.
Thursday’s victory represented Longo’s ninth national time trial title, an event first opened to women in 1995.
Longo is also scheduled to defend her national road race title on Saturday.

She's incredible -- she's my hero. If I'm lucky some day I'll meet her