Chris Boardman

Chris Boardman

Personal information
Full name	Christopher Boardman
Date of birth	26 August 1968 (1968-08-26) (age 41)
Country	United Kingdom
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Retired
Rider type	Time Trialist
Professional team(s)1
1993–1998 1999–2000	Gan Crédit Agricole
Major wins
World Time Trial champion 1994 Tour de France 3 stages
Infobox last updated on:
18 May 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Medal record
Competitor for  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Track cycling
Gold	1992 Barcelona	4000m Individual Pursuit
Road bicycle racing
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Individual Time Trial

Christopher ("Chris") Boardman (born 26 August 1968 in Hoylake) is a former English racing cyclist who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and broke the world hour record three times as well as wearing the yellow jersey on three separate occasions at the Tour de France. He is known as a specialist in the individual time trial. In his early years, he was educated in Wirral at Hilbre High School.

Chris Boardman's nickname is the Professor, for his meticulous attention to detail in preparation and training, and his technical know-how. He had an altitude tent built in his house to help him prepare for the Hour record attempt (see below), although in an interview he claimed that all it did was help him focus.

Boardman focused on interval training. He was a keen user of power measuring devices.

For his winning ways in time trials and prologues of stage races, he was nicknamed Mr. Prologue. He has been criticized for being a time-trialist who can't climb for his lacklustre performance in the mountains of the Tour de France. He denied this in an interview with CycleSport, citing examples in the 1995 edition of the Dauphiné Libéré stage race where he performed well in the mountains. He explained that his disappointing performances in the Tour de France were due to insufficient powers of recovery, which left him drained after a few days of racing.

Boardman was also famous for using the carbon-fibre Lotus 108 time trial bicycle designed by Mike Burrows and made by Lotus, the sports car manufacturer. Later he worked with the UK carbon fibre bike specialist Hotta, to produce other time-trial frame designs, which he raced in various events including world championships, and Olympic games.

Contents 1 UK time trial exploits 2 Professional career and Tour de France 3 The Hour Record 4 Olympics 5 Support Team 6 Retirement 7 Celebrity Status 8 Palmarès 9 British Records 10 World Records 11 External links 12 Further reading 13 References

UK time trial exploits

Boardman won his first national RTTC time trial title in the 1984 "GHS" schoolboy 10-mile championship and subsequently won the 1986 junior 25-mile championship. He also broke the junior 25-mile national record in 1984.

As a senior, he won four consecutive hill climb championships (from 1988 to 1991), five consecutive 25-mile championships (from 1989 to 1993), the 50-mile championship in 1991 and 1992, and the men's British time trial championship in 2000. He broke the record for 25 miles in 1992 and 1993 with 45 minutes 57 seconds (which he still holds as of 2009) on a course based on the A34 near Oxford. He was also a member of the winning North Wirral Velo team in the 1993 100 km team time trial championship (won in a championship record time of 2:00:07), having previously won the event three times with Manchester Wheelers' Club, in 1988, 1989 and 1991.

Professional career and Tour de France

Having started his cycling career as a time trial specialist, he turned professional with the GAN team, later renamed the Crédit Agricole team, of manager Roger Legeay of France.

His first race as a professional was the 1993 Grand Prix Eddy Merckx, a 66 km time trial which he won. He further won several stages of the Midi Libre and Dauphiné Libéré stage races, including the final road stage.

He won fame by winning the prologue of the 1994 Tour de France with the fastest time ever recorded,^[1] but lost the Yellow jersey in a team time trial. He was hailed as the UK's future Tour de France winner, despite his own insistence that it was a long shot. After retirement he said he was not able to recover from the rigours of stage racing due to a low hormone profile. "I've always had it, it's probably been that way since I was born, but because of the type of racing that I did in the past, it was not a problem."

In the 1995 Tour de France, he crashed at the prologue and was forced to quit.

The 1996 Tour de France saw him make a timid return in the wet and rainy prologue where he was beaten by Alex Zülle into second place.

However, he made a comeback in the 1997 Tour de France by winning the prologue of the Tour again, although a crash forced him to quit in the 13th stage.

In 1998 Tour de France, when the Tour began in Dublin, Ireland, he won the prologue but crashed on stage 2 while wearing the yellow jersey.

In 1998 he was diagnosed with an illness like Osteoporosis. Treatment for this condition meant that Boardman needed hormone replacement therapy, necessitating that Boardman take Testosterone. As a professional cyclist, it was against the sport's doping rules for Boardman to take testosterone. Boardman chose to continue in cycling for a further two years and hoped to finish his career on a high note at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

His preparation was affected by missing the 1999 Tour de France due to sinus problems.^[2] Boardman came eleventh in the time trial at the Olympics.^[3]

The Hour Record

Boardman is famous for his Hour record. The 1990s saw him compete with Graeme Obree using radically modified time-trial bikes, beating each others' record. The Union Cycliste Internationale finally modified the regulations, making use of a traditional racing bicycle, similar to the one used by Eddy Merckx to establish the Hour Record in the 1970s, compulsory. Chris Boardman made his attempt at the Hour Record using this new ruling and succeeded in 2000.

Olympics

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games games, Boardman rode a new "super bike" in the 4 km pursuit. This incorporated several new features. It was made by Lotus and called 'the uni-axle'. In the final, he caught his German opponent Jens Lehmann, World Champion from the previous year.

He chose not to defend his title at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, but did win bronze in the Men's 52 km time trial.

Support Team

Boardman tried many innovative things, in an effort to improve his racing results. He worked with Peter Keen to try to maximise his physical performance, especially in events such as the Hour record attempts. He worked with British the sports nutrition company Science In Sport to develop new feeding techniques. He worked with Terry Dolan to produce racing bicycles tailor made for particular races. The results of these experiments have benefited many other cyclists, including members of the British cycling squad.

Retirement

In an interview Boardman admitted that the last two years of his professional career were the most difficult, especially because of his debilitating condition^{[clarification needed]} and marital issues. He was criticized for not realizing his potential, but in response he said that, "I never considered myself particularly gifted, but I managed to stretch and mould the ability that I have, and found a niche for myself."

Boardman lives with his wife and six children in his native Wirral. Since retirement from professional cycling he had presented for ITV's cycling coverage and currently has a brand of cycles and accessories under the name Boardman bikes, which are sold at Halfords.^[4][5]

Boardman was appointed a technical adviser to the British road and track cycling team in 2004, and was equipment and technical manager to the TeamGB cyclists at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games ^[6][7][8]

In 2009 Boardman returned to competition. In the Flora London Marathon, he clocked a very creditable 3hrs 19min 27sec. He was also inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.^[9]

Celebrity Status

Chris Boardman's success in the 1992 olympics put him on the front page of almost every national paper in the UK which made him a household name.

He has made numerous television appearances including Noel's House Party and the breadth of his fame was indicated by a mention on Only Fools and Horses when Del Boy was trying to flog some dodgy cycle helmets.

Chris has also appeared in several documentaries about cycle racing including a documentary made by ITV about his world hour record attempt.

Palmarès

British Records

25 Miles road time-trial (Junior), 1984

25 Miles road time-trial (Senior), 1992

25 Miles road time-trial (Senior), 1993, 45:57, min/sec (still current record as at 2009)

100 Km road time-trial (Team), 1993, 2:00:07, hr/min/sec (North Wirral Velo team)

World Records

1 Hour track time-trial, 23 July 1993, Bordeaux, 52.270 Km

1 Hour track time-trial, 7 Sept 1996, Manchester, 56.375 Km

1 Hour track time-trial, 27 Oct 2000, Manchester, 49.441 Km ("Athlete" rules)

External links

• Chris Boardman's official home page
• Chris Boardman on Twitter
• Boardman Bikes official site
• Boardman Elite official site
• fansite
• International Olympic Committee - history page with video
• Chris Boardman
• Manchester Wheelers' Club
• LotusSport Pursuit Bicycle – used to win 1992 Olympic Gold.
• Chris Boardman profile at the Cycling Website
• Official Tour de France results for Chris Boardman
• Official Boardman bikes information page and Nicole Cooke video

Further reading

• "The Fastest Man on Two Wheels — In Pursuit of Chris Boardman" by Phil Liggett published by Boxtree, London, 1994

• "Boardman — A Cycling Career in Pictures" by Phil O'Connor and Graham Watson, published by O'Connor and Watson, 2000

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by N/A	World Time Trial Champion 1994	Succeeded by Miguel Indurain
Records
Preceded by Eddy Merckx	UCI hour record (49.441 km) 27 October 2000-19 July 2005	Succeeded by Ondřej Sosenka