Chris Boardman

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Chris Boardman
Personal information
Full name Chris Boardman
Date of birth August 26, 1968 (1968-08-26) (age 39)
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Team information
Discipline Road
Role Retired
Rider type Time Trialist
Professional team(s)
1993–1998
1999–2000		 Gan
Crédit Agricole
Major wins
World Time Trial champion 1994
Infobox last updated on:
May 18, 2008
Medal record
Competitor for Flag of the United Kingdom Great Britain
Olympic Games
Track cycling
Gold 1992 Barcelona 4000m Individual Pursuit
Road bicycle racing
Bronze 1996 Atlanta Individual Time Trial

Chris Boardman (born August 26, 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. He is also known as a specialist in the individual time trial.

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 a carbon-fibre time trial bicycle designed by Mike Burrows and made by Lotus, the sports car manufacturer.

Contents

[edit] 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 on a course based on the A34 near Oxford. He was also a member of the winning North Wirral Velo team in the 1993 100km team time trial championship (won in a championship record time of 2:00:07), having previously won the event mes with Manchester Wheelers' Club, in 1988, 1989 and 1991.

[edit] Professional career and Tour de France

Having started his cycling career as a time trial specialist, he turned professional with the GAN team, which later was 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 66km 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, 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 rigors 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 illegal 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.[1] Boardman came eleventh in the time trial at the Olympics.[2]

[edit] 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.

[edit] Olympics

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games games, Boardman rode a new "super bike" in the 4km pursuit. This incorporated several new features. 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 52km time trial.

[edit] 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. 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 have a brand of top end bicycles in his name, which are sold at Halfords[3][4].

[edit] Celebrity Status

Chris Boardmans 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 televison appearances including Noel's House Party and even a mention on Only Fools and Horses when Del Boy was trying to flog some dodgy cycle helmets.

[edit] External links

[edit] 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

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boardman: Illness forcing me to quit. BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-05-18.
  2. ^ Ekimov upstages the rest. Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-18.
  3. ^ http://www.boardmanbikes.com/
  4. ^ http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/categorydisplay_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_124465_langId_-1_topCategoryId__parentcategoryrn_33957_crumb_33980-33957_topcategory_33957
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