Chris Boardman

Chris Boardman

Boardman in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Christopher Miles Boardman
Nickname	The Professor,[1] Mr. Prologue
Born	(1968-08-26) 26 August 1968 Hoylake, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Team information
Discipline	Road
Rider type	Time Trial specialist
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
World Time Trial champion 1994 Tour de France 3 stages
Medal record Competitor for  England Commonwealth Games Bronze Edinburgh 1986 4000m Team Pursuit Bronze Auckland 1990 4000m Team Pursuit Bronze Auckland 1990 Team Time Trial (100km) Competitor for  Great Britain Olympic Games Track cycling Gold 1992 Barcelona 4000m Individual Pursuit Road bicycle racing Bronze 1996 Atlanta Individual Time Trial World Championships Track cycling Gold 1994 Palermo 4km Individual Pursuit Gold 1996 Manchester 4km Individual Pursuit Road bicycle racing Gold 1994 Agrigento Individual Time trial Silver 1996 Lugano Individual Time trial Bronze 1997 San Sebastian Individual Time trial Bronze 1999 Treviso Individual Time trial
Infobox last updated on 18 May 2008

Christopher Miles Boardman, MBE, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former 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 cycling.^[2]

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, 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.

Boardman is also known for having used the 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.

Early life

He was educated at Hilbre High School in Wirral, Merseyside, and rode in his first bike race at the age of 13. He was on the national cycling team by the age of 16.^[3]

Career

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)^[4] 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,^[5] 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 on the stage 13.

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.^[6] Boardman came eleventh in the time trial at the Olympics.^[7]

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 other's records in turn. The Union Cycliste Internationale finally modified the regulations, mandating use of a traditional racing bicycle, similar to the one used by Eddy Merckx to establish the Hour Record in the 1970s. Chris Boardman made his attempt at the Hour Record using this new ruling and succeeded in 2000 riding just 10 m further than Merckx's 28 year-old record.

Olympics

Boardman rode a Lotus 108 in the 4 km pursuit at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Lotus Engineering's 'uni-axle' design incorporated several new features. Boardman caught Germany's Jens Lehmann, the 1991 World Champion, in the Olympic final.

Boardman won bronze in the 52 km time trial at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He did not defend his 4 km title.

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."

Personal life

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.^[8][9] He is also involved in producing competition cycles through Boardman Elite.^[10]

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 ^[11][12][13]

In 2009 Boardman took part in the London marathon, finishing in 3hrs 19min 27sec. He was also inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.^[14]

In 2012 Boardman commentated alongside Hugh Porter for the BBC on the cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He is an advocate of policies to greatly increase utility cycling in the United Kingdom, citing the potential to reduce the 35,000 annual deaths from obesity-related diseases, and urging that in road traffic accidents there be a presumption of guilt on the driver of the larger vehicle.^[15]

Palmarès

Records

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

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

• Official website
• @Chris_Boardman on Twitter
• Chris Boardman profile at Cycling Archives

v t e UCI Road World Champions – Men's time trial 1994: Chris Boardman 1995: Miguel Indurain 1996: Alex Zülle 1997: Laurent Jalabert 1998: Abraham Olano 1999: Jan Ullrich 2000: Serhiy Honchar 2001: Jan Ullrich 2002: Santiago Botero 2003: Michael Rogers 2004: Michael Rogers 2005: Michael Rogers 2006: Fabian Cancellara 2007: Fabian Cancellara 2008: Bert Grabsch 2009: Fabian Cancellara 2010: Fabian Cancellara 2011: Tony Martin 2012: Tony Martin 2013: Tony Martin