Chris Boardman

Chris Boardman
MBE

Boardman at the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire
Personal information
Full name	Christopher Miles Boardman
Nickname	The Professor[1]
Born	(1968-08-26) 26 August 1968 (age 53) Hoylake, Cheshire, England
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Weight	70 kg (154 lb; 11 st 0 lb)[2]
Team information
Discipline	Road and track
Rider type	Time trialist
Amateur teams
–	Birkenhead Victoria CC
–	Manchester Wheelers' Club
–	GS Strada
–	North Wirral Velo Club-Kodak
Professional teams
1993–1998	GAN
1999–2000	Crédit Agricole
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 3 individual stages (1994, 1997, 1998) Stage races Critérium International (1996) Time trials World Time Trial Championships (1994) Duo Normand (1993, 1999) Chrono des Nations (1993, 1996) Grand Prix des Nations (1996) Hour record Best human effort (1993, 1996) UCI Hour Record (2000)
show Medal record Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games Men's track cycling 1992 Barcelona Individual pursuit Men's road bicycle racing 1996 Atlanta Time trial World Championships Men's track cycling 1994 Palermo Individual pursuit 1996 Manchester Individual pursuit 1993 Hamar Individual pursuit Men's road bicycle racing 1994 Agrigento Time trial 1996 Lugano Time trial 1997 San Sebastian Time trial 1999 Treviso Time trial Representing  England Commonwealth Games Edinburgh 1986 Team pursuit Auckland 1990 Team pursuit Auckland 1990 Team time trial

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, broke the world hour record three times, and won three stages and wore the yellow jersey on three occasions at the Tour de France. In 1992, he was awarded an MBE for services to cycling.^[3]

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 also nicknamed "Mr. Prologue".

Boardman is also notable for having used the Lotus 108 time trial bicycle designed by Mike Burrows and built 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 and amateur career[]

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.^[4]

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)^[5] 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 (in a record time of 2:00:07), having previously won the event three times with Manchester Wheelers' Club, in 1988, 1989 and 1991.

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Boardman rode a Lotus 108 in the 4 km individual pursuit. Lotus Engineering's 'uni-axle' design incorporated several new features. Boardman caught Germany's Jens Lehmann, the 1991 World Champion, in the Olympic final on his way to winning the gold medal.

Professional career[]

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. 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. In 1993 Boardman established the fastest time for a bicycle around the 37.73 mile Snaefell Mountain Course, the course used for the Isle of Man TT Races. Riding a specially modified bicycle, Boardman recorded a time of 1hr 23min 54secs. The time recorded would prove to be the longest standing cycling record on the Isle of Man, until it was beaten by Peter Kennaugh in 2015. Kennaugh, riding a standard racing bicycle, beat the record by six seconds.^[6]

Boardman competed with Graeme Obree for the hour record using radically modified time-trial bikes, beating each other's records in turn; in one eight-month period in 1994 the record fell four times.^[7] Boardman won fame by winning the prologue of the 1994 Tour de France with what was then the fastest time ever recorded.^[8] In the process he caught Luc Leblanc, who had previously been dismissive about Boardman's 1993 hour record, claiming that it could probably be beaten by half the professional peloton.^[9] However he subsequently 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, Boardman crashed in the prologue and was forced to quit by his injuries. The 1996 Tour de France saw him make a timid return in the wet and rainy prologue where he was beaten by Alex Zülle and finished in second place. Boardman won bronze in the 52 km road time trial at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He did not defend his track individual pursuit title.

Boardman made a comeback at the 1997 Tour de France, winning the prologue of the Tour once more, although a crash forced him to quit the tour on stage 13.

In 1998 Tour de France, when the Tour began in Dublin, Ireland, Boardman won the prologue, but this time crashed out of the race on stage 2.^[10] In 1998 he was diagnosed with osteopenia due to low testosterone levels.^{[citation needed]} Treatment to prevent a worsening of his condition would have required him to take testosterone, which is banned under anti-doping rules. The UCI refused to allow Boardman an exemption on medical grounds. Faced with either retiring to allow treatment for his osteoporosis, or continuing to cycle without taking testosterone, Boardman chose to continue in cycling untreated for a further two years, hoping to finish his career on a high note at the 2000 Summer Olympics.^[11]

In 1997 the UCI had changed their regulations for the Hour Record, restricting competitors to roughly the same equipment as Eddy Merckx had used in the 1970s, banning time trial helmets, disc or tri-spoke wheels, aerodynamic bars and monocoque composite frames. Boardman made an attempt at the Hour Record using this new ruling in 2000 and succeeded in riding 49.441 km, just 13 m further than Merckx's 28-year-old record.^[7]

Boardman's preparation for the road time trial at the 2000 Olympics was affected by missing the 2000 Tour de France due to sinus problems;^[12] he finished eleventh in the time trial.^[2][13]

Boardman retired after the Olympics, at the age of 32.^[14] In an interview Boardman admitted that the last two years of his professional career were the most difficult, especially because of his debilitating health condition and also marital issues. Boardman's osteoporosis was uncommon for someone as young as he was. He was criticised for not realising 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."^{[citation needed]}

Greater Manchester Cycling and Walking Commissioner[]

Boardman was appointed Greater Manchester’s first Cycling and Walking Commissioner by Andy Burnham in 2017.^[15] The Bee Network plan which he has developed is intended to be the UK’s ‘first’ joined-up cycling and walking network. It is intended to deliver 1,800 miles of protected walking and cycling routes. ^[16]

In May 2021, Boardman was promoted to become Greater Manchester’s first Transport Commissioner, he will be tasked with accelerating the development of The Bee Network cycling and walking network and to integrate those modes with Metrolink, buses and trains.

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.^[17][18] He is also involved in producing competition cycles through Boardman Elite.^[19]

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.^[20][21][22]

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.^[23]

In 2012 Boardman commentated alongside Hugh Porter for the BBC on the cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and is a contributor to cycling programmes on both BBC and ITV.

Boardman appeared on the BBC Top Gear TV show in Series 21, Episode 5 (2 March 2014) in his role as a British Cycling policy advisor in the "Make a commercial for reducing cycle-related accidents" feature.

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.^[24] In July 2016, his mother Carol died as a result of a collision with a Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck while cycling in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, Wales.^[25]

In July 2017 Boardman was appointed Greater Manchester's first ever commissioner for walking and cycling.^[26] On 29 July 2018, at the end of that year's Tour de France coverage on ITV4, Boardman announced he was leaving his role as co-presenter in order to concentrate on that role.^[27]

Boardman was featured on BBC Question Time on 14 November 2019.^[28]

Boardman returned as a presenter on ITV4's coverage of the 2020 edition of the Tour de France which began on 29 August 2020 in Nice.

Career achievements[]

Major results[]

Source:^[29][30][31]

World records[]

Discipline	Record	Date	Event	Velodrome	Track	Ref
4 km individual pursuit	4:27.357	27 July 1992	Olympic Games	D'Horta (Barcelona)	Open air	[32]
	4:24.496	27 July 1992				[32]
Hour record	52.270 km	23 July 1993	—	Bordeaux	Indoor	[33]
4 km individual pursuit	4:13.353	28 August 1996	World Championships	Manchester		[32]
	4:11.114	29 August 1996				[32]
Hour record	56.375 km	6 September 1996	—			[33]
	49.441 km	27 October 2000	—			[33]

Awards and honours[]

• Bidlake Memorial Prize: 1992^[34]
• Sports Journalists' Association Pat Besford Award: 1992^[35]
• Member of the Order of the British Empire: 1993
• British Cycling Hall of Fame: 2010^[36]

See also[]

• List of British cyclists
• List of British cyclists who have led the Tour de France general classification
• List of Olympic medalists in cycling (men)
• World record progression track cycling – Men's individual pursuit
• Yellow jersey statistics

References[]

Sources[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Boardman.

• Official website
• Chris Boardman at Cycling Archives
• Chris Boardman compares cycling in Holland and Britain - video on YouTube, published 17 July 2015, by itv4realfans.

Preceded by Eddy Merckx

UCI hour record (49.441 km) 27 October 2000 – 19 July 2005

Succeeded by Ondřej Sosenka