Chris Boardman

Chris Boardman
Chris Boardman
Personal information
Full name Christopher Miles Boardman
Nickname The Professor[citation needed]
Born 26 August 1968 (1968-08-26) (age 43)
Hoylake, United Kingdom
Team information
Discipline Road
Role Retired
Rider type Time Trialist
Amateur team(s)
Birkenhead Victoria CC
Manchester Wheelers' Club
GS Strada
North Wirral Velo Club - Kodak
Professional team(s)
1993–1998
1999–2000
Gan
Crédit Agricole
Major wins
Arc en ciel.svg World Time Trial champion 1994
Tour de France 3 stages
Infobox last updated on
18 May 2008

Christopher "Chris" Boardman MBE (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 winning three stages and wearing the yellow jersey on three separate occasions at the Tour de France. In 1992, he was awarded an MBE for services to British cycling.[1]

He was educated in Wirral at Hilbre High School and rode in his first bike race at the age of 13. He was on the national cycling team by the age of 16.[2]

Boardman's nickname is the Professor, for his meticulous attention to detail in preparation and training, and his technical know-how.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] He denied this in an interview with CycleSport, citing examples in the 1995 edition of the Critérium du 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.[citation needed]

Boardman is also famous for having used the carbon-fibre Lotus 108 time trial bicycle designed by Mike Burrows and made by the sports car manufacturer Lotus. 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. He is now involved in producing commercial and competition bikes with the Boardman Bikes and Boardman Elite ventures.

Contents

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 held until 2009)[3] 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 Critérium du 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,[4] 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.[5] Boardman came eleventh in the time trial at the Olympics.[6]

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 riding just 10m further than Merckx's 28 year-old record.

Olympics

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Boardman rode a new "super bike" in the 4 km pursuit, the Lotus 108. This incorporated several new features. It was made by Lotus Engineering 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 the British 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 and marital issues. Boardman was diagnosed with osteoporosis by the time he was 30, a condition which is uncommon for someone as young as he was. 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 has presented for ITV's cycling coverage and currently has a brand of cycles and accessories under the name Boardman bikes.[7][8] He is also involved in producing competition cycles through Boardman Elite.[9]

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 [10][11][12]

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.[13]

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.

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

Palmarès

1986 Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal blank.svg Bronze, 4000m Team Pursuit
8th Commonwealth Games, 4000m Individual Pursuit
1987
 United Kingdom 2nd British National Hill Climb Championships
1988
 United Kingdom British National Hill Climb Championships
1989
 United Kingdom British National Hill Climb Championships
 United Kingdom National Amateur Track Pursuit Championship
1990
 United Kingdom British National Hill Climb Championships
1990 Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal blank.svg Bronze, 4000m Team Pursuit (with Simon Lillistone, Bryan Steel and Glen Sword)
Bronze medal blank.svg Bronze, Team Time Trial (100km) (with Peter Longbottom, Ben Luckwell and Wayne Randle)
1991
 United Kingdom British National Hill Climb Championships
 United Kingdom National Amateur Track Pursuit Championship
1992
 United Kingdom National Amateur Track Pursuit Championship
Gold medal icon.svg Olympic Games, Track Pursuit
1993
Chrono des Herbiers
Duo Normand (with Laurent Bezault)
Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
1994
Arc en ciel.svg World Track Pursuit Championship
Arc en ciel.svg World Time Trial Championship
Tour de France:
Winner prologue
1995
Critérium du Dauphiné Liberé - 2nd[14]
Winner Prologue
1996
Bronze medal icon.svg Olympic Games, Individual Time Trial
Chrono des Herbiers
Duo Normand (with Paul Manning)
Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
Josef Voegeli Memorial
Arc en ciel.svg World Track Pursuit Championship
Critérium International
Grand Prix des Nations
LuK Challenge Chrono (with Uwe Peschel)
1997
Tour de France:
Winner prologue
1998
Tour de France:
Winner prologue
1999
GP Breitling (with Jens Voigt)
Josef Voegeli Memorial
Duo Normand (with Jens Voigt)
LuK Challenge Chrono (with Jens Voigt)

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
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)

References

  1. ^ www.independent.co.uk, 1992 New Years Honours List.
  2. ^ www.bbc.co.uk What's so special about Chris Boardman
  3. ^ The National Governing Body for Cycling Time Trials in England & Wales http://www.rttc.org.uk/Home/tabid/36/itemid/1542/Default.aspx
  4. ^ "Le Tour en chiffres Les autres records" (in French). LeTour.fr. http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/docs/histo_09.pdf. 
  5. ^ "Boardman: Illness forcing me to quit". BBC.co.uk. 25 September 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/cycling/941644.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-18. 
  6. ^ "Ekimov upstages the rest". Cyclingnews.com. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/2000/sep00/oly00/results/TTmen.shtml. Retrieved 2008-05-18. 
  7. ^ "Boardman Bikes : Chris Boardman". http://www.boardmanbikes.com/. 
  8. ^ "Boardman Bikes at Halfords". http://www.halfords.com/boardmanbikes. 
  9. ^ "Future bike revealed". Sky Sports. 12 August 2009. http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11979_5486559,00.html. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
  10. ^ Mark Appleton. "Boardman's technical quest for Beijing gold". Bike Radar.com. http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/boardmans-technical-quest-for-beijing-gold-17707. 
  11. ^ Patrick Sawyer (6 August 2008). "Revolutionary skinsuit helps UK cyclists go for Olympic gold". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/2489676/Revolutionary-skinsuit-helps-UK-cyclists-go-for-Olympic-gold.html. 
  12. ^ Jeremy Whittle (12 August 2008). "Chris Boardman frets over final preparations". London: timesonline.co.uk. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4511961.ece. 
  13. ^ "50 Cycling Heroes Named in British Cycling's Hall of Fame". British Cycling. 2009-12-17. http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/sport/article/bc20091216-Hall-of-fame-fifty. 
  14. ^ "Dauphine Libere - France June 4–11, 1995". http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/archives/june95/dauphine.html. 

Further reading

  • Liggett, Phil (1994), The Fastest Man on Two Wheels — In Pursuit of Chris Boardman, London: Boxtree .
  • O'Connor, Phil; Watson, Graham (2000), Boardman — A Cycling Career in Pictures, O'Connor and Watson .

External links

Records
Preceded by
Eddy Merckx
UCI hour record (49.441 km)
27 October 2000-19 July 2005
Succeeded by
Ondřej Sosenka

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