Chris Boardman
Chris Boardman
Microscopic attention to detail and an indomitable will made Chris Boardman arguably the greatest exponent of his era of the solo effort.
Between 1988 and 1993, Boardman won four consecutive national hill climb championships, five consecutive 25-mile championships, two consecutive 50-mile championships, and four 100-mile team time trial championships. Three bronze medals in two Commonwealth Games (1986 and 1990) were bettered by Boardman’s performance at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where he rode the iconic Lotus 108 to gold in the 4000m individual pursuit.
Success as a professional soon followed. Victories during his neo-pro season in 1993 with Roger Legeay’s Gan team were followed by a prologue time trial victory and yellow jersey in the 1994 Tour de France.
The same year, Boardman pulled on cycling’s other most coveted jersey, the rainbow stripes of world champion, with victory on the road in the UCI World Time Trial Championship in Salzburg and on the track in the individual pursuit in Palermo (Boardman would win a second pursuit world championship at the Manchester velodrome in 1996).
Two further Tour De France prologue time trial victories and their accompanying yellow jerseys followed in 1997 and 1998.
A career-defining rivalry with another British legend, Graeme Obree, saw the two swap the world hour record on increasingly esoteric machinery, until the UCI stepped in to regulate a ‘traditional’ bicycle.
Boardman broke the record three times, in 1993, 1996, and 2000 – the latter after the UCI regulations came into force to cement his place in cycling legend.
Retirement has brought successful careers as a television commentator, bicycle designer, and technical advisor to the all-conquering Team GB track team.
Finest moment: Where to start? Boardman’s gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics catapulted him to the front page of every national newspaper, while his victory in the 1994 UCI World Time Trial Championship cemented his transformation from track specialist to the pro peloton’s supreme performer against the clock.