Jens Voigt is the oldest World Tour rider in 2011, Van Keirsbulck the youngest

Hardman Voigt is almost twice the age as the World Tour’s youngest rider, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck

Wielerland.nl recently put together an interesting set of numbers related to the age of cycling’s oldest and youngest riders in the World Tour and Professional Continental ranks.

Leopard Trek’s Jens Voigt will be the oldest rider on the 2011 World Tour. With a birthday of September 17, 1971, Voigt will turn 40 at the end of the season, and if you’ve ever watched him on tv or spent a few minutes near him, you’d think he’s not a day over 22. Lance Armstrong is one day younger than Voigt, but has taken part in his final World Tour event with last week’s Tour Down Under.

Behind Voigt and Armstrong are two of the seven-time Tour de France winner’s teammates: Chris Horner and Robbie McEwen. Horner is just over a month younger than the eternally aggressive, Voigt, with a birthday of October 23rd, while McEwen comes in a distant fourth with a birthday of June 24, 1972 – he’ll only hit 39 in the days leading up to the Tour de France.

On the opposite side of the World Tour age spectrum is QuickStep’s neo-pro signing, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck. Van Keirsbulck won’t turn 20 until Valentine’s Day, February 14th.

Taking a step down to the ProContinental level, the age range broadens still further. For the second year in a row, Farnese Vini’s Andrea Noe will be the oldest rider at the ProContinental level. The evergreen Italian celebrated his 42nd birthday almost two weeks ago on the 15th of January. In 2009, his final year in the ProTour ranks with Liquigas, he was already the oldest ProTour rider. Noe has made it clear that this year will be his final one though and plans to take his leave from the sport following May’s Giro d’Italia.

Coming in as the youngest rider, Belgian Joeri Stallaert just turned 19 yesterday. The Landbouwkrediet rider will have an incredibly long professional career if he can make it as long as Andrea Noe. It would be 24 seasons at the professional level if Stallaert can make it to 42 as a professional cyclist.