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Lousã, in the interior of the district of Coimbra, has scrolls in cycling activities, with cycling events throughout the 20th century, to which cycling events and world-class motorcycle competitions have been added in recent decades. But it was the need for self-transport in their youth that allowed José Fernandes, a former heavy machinery operator, and João Francisco Carvalho, who worked at service stations, to be today among the most popular retirees in a mountainous municipality where they continue to pedal. daily. your health.
Born in 1930, José Fernandes turns 90 in December. In the area he is known as Zé Maquinista, an epithet he inherited from his father, José Jacinto, and which he does not reject precisely because they both practiced their profession in the former Autonomous Board of Estradas (JAE).
“I was born and soon I was baptized as a Train Conductor,” he jokes, during the news of Lusa.
As a young man, he took the course that would allow him to guide the machines in the construction of roads, dams and airports in the country. In Alves Ribeiro they wanted me to obtain a driving license for light and heavy vehicles.
“I was the only driver who could read,” he explains, to clarify that he worked twice at the construction company, before and after JAE.
Whenever necessary, he drove “a truck that did not have a designated driver”, not being able to leave the sections where the works were being carried out.
PAULO NOVAIS / LUSA
Credits: © 2020 LUSA – Agência de Notícias de Portugal, SA
“data-title =” José Fernandes, 89, never took out his license by car but goes everywhere by bicycle – “When my bicycle is missing, I feel it right away. That gives your legs a health that is wonderful ”. At 89 and 84, they never stop pedaling – SAPO 24 “>
At the age of 12, “he already had a cycling license”, obtained in Câmara da Lousã, after José Jacinto, who traveled long distances behind the wheel of JAE machines, taught his son the traffic signs and the rules.
“Out of necessity and for pleasure”, José Fernandes goes shopping, visits friends and goes to offices in his two-wheeled vehicle.
“Riding a bicycle makes the whole body move. It is better for your health than walking ”, says José Fernandes. If the weather is good, he says, “I ride my bike every day,” even going with other cyclists to have lunch in Miranda do Corvo, eight kilometers from home.
On his return, on the steepest descent of the route, he says that he does not brake: “It is the speed that the bicycle gives.” This exercise provides “healthier aging”, he welcomes, while regretting that the youngest do not preserve the quality of life in the same way.
Better known locally by João Fão, his compatriot João Francisco Carvalho has his roots in Ponte Velha, very close to the place where the mythical Estrada Nacional 2 crosses the municipalities of Lousã and Vila Nova de Poiares.
The former automobile worker was born at the height of the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1935 and turns 85 in November. On a daily basis, he travels the town by bicycle. He had a heavy duty license, but let it expire when he retired.
He only needed it at the service station, “to test the cars”, to which he changed the oil, calibrated the tires and aligned the steering, among other jobs.
“Here I run everything by bicycle,” he stresses, saying that sometimes he goes to Poiares and even takes the risk of climbing the Serra da Lousã. On steep climbs or when you are tired, you have “a beastly cane” on the bike you lean on.
“When my bike is missing, I feel it right away. That gives your legs health, which is wonderful, ”he says.
“They are living examples of quality aging”
João Malva, coordinating researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of Coimbra, recommends some activities for active and healthy aging.
“It is not enough to give years of life if those years are going to be of poor quality. Above all, it is necessary to give more life to the years than to the times to live ”, he advocates.
Dependence on care “takes away the quality of life and dignity of the human condition”, leaving society to invest in prevention, according to the coordinator of Aging @ Coimbra, a consortium that values the role of older people in the community and promotes ” good practices in favor of their general well-being “.
“We must promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles to avoid disease”, underlines the specialist.
Running, walking, swimming and cycling “have a very important benefit in the quality of life of people”, with positive effects in old age.
João Malva, who does not know José Fernandes and João Carvalho personally, defines them in the light of the objectives of Aging @ Coimbra and the current policies of the European Union in this area.
“They are living examples of quality aging that are directly related to your daily physical exercise habit,” he concludes. After all, old are the rags.
According to current projects underway, in 10 years Portugal will have 7,000 kilometers of bicycle lanes in Portugal, compared to 2,000 kilometers today.
