Tour de France Cyclists Live Longer than Non-Cyclists

People who took part in the Tour de France between 1947 and 2012 outlived their non-cyclists countrymen by an average of six years, according to a new study.

Regular exercise is known to have many health benefits. However, high levels of endurance exercises such as marathon and triathlons have been linked with increased risk of heart diseases. The new study shows that elite endurance athletes tend to live longer than other people.

"In the context of recent concerns regarding performance-enhancing techniques and the potential negative health effects of excessive high-level physical activity, data on the long-term outcomes and causes of death in elite endurance cyclists is of particular interest," said Xavier Jouven, MD, PhD, from the Sudden Death Expertise Center in Paris, France.

The study was based on data obtained from 786 French cyclists who had participated in the race at least once in their lives. Researchers then compared the data with that of French people of the same age.

By 2012, about 26 percent of the elite cyclists had died. Researchers found that elite athletes had a 41 percent reduced rate of mortality when compared to the general population, Forbes reported.

"Although our results are reassuring to some extent, since no death has been observed since 1990, we have to remain careful since we cannot directly assess the potential harmfulness of doping through our analyses and results," Jouven said in a news release.