The guy in black who just blew past on his bike? That's Charley French. French once set a record at the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii and is a five-time world champ in a sport he took up 25 years ago — just as he was helping American cyclist Greg Lemond win the Tour de France. French made the aerodynamic handlebars Lemond rode to victory in Paris in 1989.

這個身穿一身黑的男子剛剛騎著自行車如一陣風掃過？他叫法蘭奇，他曾改寫夏威夷鐵人3項紀錄，並曾5次奪得世界冠軍。25年前，他開始迷上這項運動，當時他正在幫美國自行車賽車手萊蒙德贏得環法自行車賽冠軍（譯注：萊蒙德曾奪得3屆環法冠軍、2屆世界職業公路賽冠軍，是美國車壇傳奇人物）。法蘭奇的空氣動力學車把助萊蒙德一臂之力，於1989年在巴黎奔向勝利。

But even at that, French is no ordinary athlete and he's had no ordinary life. At 18, he was a machinist aboard the USS Cleveland that took Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Battle of Borneo in 1945. In the 1960s, French appeared in ski films made in the Austrian Alps.

但法蘭奇可不是普通運動員，他這一生多采多姿。18歲那年，他是美國克利夫蘭巡洋艦上的機工，麥克阿瑟將軍1945年就是登上這艘艦艇去參加婆羅洲戰役。1960年代，法蘭奇也曾出現在奧地利阿爾卑斯山的滑雪影片中。

Just turned 84, he's been training for what will be easily his 200th triathlon. When he donned his wetsuit and slipped into the Payette River in southwestern Idaho, it was a testimonial to human longevity and fitness. French doesn't consider it any special personal triumph, however. “It's luck,” he said. “I was fortunate to have a body where nothing goes wrong.”

今年他84歲了，但他仍一直接受訓練，準備挑戰個人第200個鐵人3項。當他穿上潛水衣，潛入愛達荷州西南部的百葉河時，已經見證了人類的長壽和健康。但法蘭奇並不認為這是他個人的任何特殊勝利，他說：「全靠運氣，我很幸運，身體沒有任何問題。」

Watching French pedal his triathlon bike into the mountains around Sun Valley in Idaho（pictured, AP）, it seems impossible that this man was born when Calvin Coolidge was president and the Great Depression was still three years off.

看著法蘭奇踩著鐵人3項自行車到群山環抱的愛達荷州太陽谷（見圖／美聯社），似乎很難想像，他出生時柯立芝是美國總統，而經濟大蕭條3年後才開始。

He still works 25 hours a month at Scott Sports, the Swiss-owned sporting goods maker with offices in Ketchum, near Sun Valley. This summer, he was in France, cycling with buddies. He's headed to China this fall, for yet another bike tour. “I'm living a life that's 15 or 20 years younger than I am,” he acknowledges. Hips and knees? All original parts. “I'm the only guy I know who has hasn't had something replaced,” said French, who lives with Marian, his wife of 40 years, on the Big Wood River a few hundred yards downstream from the house where writer Ernest Hemingway killed himself in 1961.

目前，他每個月仍到史考特體育用品店工作25個小時，這是一家瑞士體育用品製造商，辦公室位於太陽谷附近的凱徹姆鎮。今年夏天，他到法國跟幾個死黨一起騎自行車，今秋他還要到中國參加另一項自行車之旅。他坦承：「我目前過著年輕15或20歲的生活。」 臀部和膝蓋呢？全是原始版本。法蘭奇說：「據我所知，我是唯一一個沒更換過身體零件的人。」他目前仍跟結縭40年的妻子瑪麗安住在大木河畔，就在作家海明威1961年自殺身亡的房子下游幾百碼處。

Ed Brockett, who runs the USS Cleveland Reunion Association from his home in Laguna Woods, Calif., didn't know French existed until a reporter called. Initially skeptical this octogenarian superathlete was a shipmate, he found photos taken in Tokyo Harbor in 1945. C.S. French is on page 32, in the third row, second from left. （pictured, AP） Brockett estimates 3,000 men served between 1942 and 1946 on the Cleveland, with the last reunion attended by only 11. None were doing triathlons. “I am amazed, knowing all the aches and pains that I've got, how he does it,”he said.

負責克里夫蘭號老兵協會的布羅克特，從位於加州拉古納伍茲的家表示，在記者打電話來查詢之前，他一直不知道有法蘭奇這號人物。他一開始還懷疑這位八旬超級運動員是否真的是老艦友，直到他找到1945年在東京港拍攝的照片，法蘭奇在第32頁，第3排，左起第2人（見圖／美聯社）。布羅克特估計，1942至1946年克利夫蘭號上總共有3000名大兵，去年只有11人參加艦友聚會，沒有一人參加過鐵人3項。他說：「我很驚訝，想想自己身上的病痛，不知他怎麼辦到的。」

French joined the Navy in 1944. He was just 17. “Some guys, they always live in the same place,” he said. “I was always looking for something to do next.” After the war, French returned to California, getting a college degree in mechanical engineering. He went to Europe with Douglas Corp. and Litton Industries, working on weapons contracts with the British and Italian governments. While based in Hamburg, Germany, in the mid-1960s, he'd take the Friday night sleeper train to ski in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

法蘭奇1944年加入海軍，當時他只有17歲。他說：「有些人終其一生始終住在同一個地方，我一直在想下一步要做什麼。」戰後，法蘭奇回到加州，取得大學機械工程學士學位，再轉往歐洲加入道格拉斯公司和利頓工業公司，負責和英國及義大利政府的軍火合約。1960年代中期，當他派駐德國漢堡時，常在周五晚上搭臥舖夜車到奧地利基茨堡滑雪。

In 1971, French began as an engineer for Scott, working on ski boots, goggles and ski poles. It was there that U.S. Alpine Ski Team coach, bike racer and inventor Boone Lennon showed up in 1986 with a wooden handlebar prototype that looked a bit like a toilet seat but put his body into an aerodynamic tuck.

1971年，法蘭奇開始擔任史考特公司的工程師，並著手改良滑雪鞋、護目鏡和滑雪桿。美國高山滑雪隊教練、自行車賽車手兼發明家萊儂1986年找上門來，手上拿著原型木把手，看起來有點像馬桶座，但順著身體氣體力學彎曲。

French, then just 60, rode an early aluminum version at the 1986 Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, setting a record for his age of 12 hours, 13 minutes. Pro triathletes began calling, demanding their own handlebars. “Guys who never could win before were winning,” Lennon said in Bozeman, Mont. “People they beat would call, and week after week we would do more.”

法蘭奇當年正好60歲，他1986年騎著早期鋁製車把單車參加夏威夷鐵人3項，以12小時13分鐘刷新他那個年齡組的紀錄。這時職業鐵人3項選手開始下單，要求訂製自己的車把。萊儂在蒙大拿州波茲曼說：「以前從沒想過會贏的人竟然贏了，他們的手下敗將也紛紛來電下單，周復一周，我們愈做愈多。」

Finally, American champion Greg Lemond, coming off a shotgun accident that derailed his career in 1987, agreed to clip the bars to his 1989 Tour de France comeback bike. French personally bent Lemond's bars into shape in Ketchum. Many considered it impossible to overcome over just 15.5 miles, but Lemond beat Fignon by 58 seconds to take the overall win using what announcers called “unique and controversial handlebars”.

最後，美國冠軍車手萊蒙德，由於一次獵槍意外而使他的職業生涯於1987年停擺，他同意於1989年環法自行車賽復出時量身訂製車把。法蘭奇在凱徹姆鎮親自為萊蒙德彎曲車把。很多人不看好他會在15.5英哩的賽程中勝出，但萊蒙德最後仍以58秒之差擊敗（法國名將）費農獲勝，播音員當時說，他以所謂「獨特和有爭議的把手」奪冠。

“It's still the biggest timesaving thing you can do to a bicycle,” French said, who has one of his aluminum bars on his carbon-fiber racing machine. As of July 31, USA Triathlon had 44 members in its 80 to 89 age group, 38 men and 6 women.

法蘭奇說：「這還是騎自行車最省時間的辦法。」他那部碳纖維賽車上有一個鋁製車把。到7月31日為止，美國鐵人三項80至89歲年齡組共有44人報名參賽，包括38名男性、6名女性。