Ride Smart, Stay Healthy: A Midlife Road Map for Cyclists 40+

Phil Cavell is a former bike racer who co-founded Cyclefit in London in 2002 — back when the idea of professional bike fitting was met with more skepticism than interest.

Over the past two decades, Cyclefit has worked with hundreds of professional cyclists and thousands of amateurs, counting Fabian Cancellara, Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy, and Kristen Faulkner among its clients, and helping to establish dynamic cycling biomechanics as a serious discipline.

In 2021, Phil wrote The Midlife Cyclist, a book that held the number one spot on Amazon’s cycling charts in both the UK and US for over a year. His follow-up, The Cycling Addiction: A Radical Rethink of Pain, Passion and Performance, is due out in the summer of 2026.

A former Google executive and serial entrepreneur, Gerardo traded high-stakes Silicon Valley for a life centered on active living. This journey was influenced by Chip’s Modern Elder philosophy and Phil Cavell’s book, The Midlife Cyclist. Today, he’s the founder of Vine Trail Adventures in Napa Valley, where, as a cycling tour designer and guide, he champions cycling as the ultimate tool for longevity and cognitive health.

Part of Gerardo’s mission is to make midlife cycling safe and accessible. Though he prefers his “analog bike,” he is a vocal advocate for how e-bikes act as a “great equalizer,” allowing those in midlife to discover the joy of cycling and maintain peak physical activity.

Beyond personal fitness, Gerardo sees cycling as a catalyst for creating community. As the producer of the Tour de Calistoga and a designer of international group cycling tours, he uses his decades of leadership experience to create events that blend local culture, with the joy of open roads and trails.

“In the tech industry, we talk about ‘upgrading’ systems. In midlife, cycling is the ultimate hardware upgrade for the human body and the software update for the soul.”
– Gerardo Capiel

Derek Gehl is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and author whose journey has been shaped by a passion for empowering entrepreneurs and transforming lives. After building one of the world’s first Internet marketing companies, the birth of his first son in 2008 sparked a pivotal realization: he wanted to create a life that balanced family, business, and personal fulfillment. This led him to sell his company and refocus on building businesses that supported his vision of being present for his children while pursuing his entrepreneurial passions.

As he entered his forties, his path evolved naturally toward helping people in midlife pursue their entrepreneurial dreams while simultaneously venturing into the health and longevity space, where from 2017 to 2024, he built numerous successful natural health supplement brands. Yet despite his success, Derek missed the direct human connection that had characterized his earlier work with entrepreneurs worldwide.

At 47, Derek and his wife of 20 years were planning their next chapter together as they prepared to launch their youngest of two sons when MEA unexpectedly entered their lives. Initially skeptical of the concept of a “midlife wisdom school” – having seen behind too many curtains in the personal development industry – his experience at MEA’s Navigating Transitions workshop transformed his perspective entirely. There, he discovered something authentically different: a community of intelligent, caring individuals, each charting their unique paths through midlife’s transitions.

That unexpected journey from skeptic to believer led Derek to join MEA as the CEO. Today, he leads MEA’s mission to reimagine midlife and build a vibrant global pro-aging community. His unique background in entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and wellness, combined with his personal understanding of midlife transition, positions him perfectly to help expand MEA’s impact while preserving the magic that makes it unique.