Chris Boardman

summary

Christopher Boardman was born into a cycling family in the small town of Hoylake, Wirral on 26th August 1968.  Although his father, Keith was an enthusiastic cyclist who was short listed for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, it was not until Chris was thirteen that he began to show a real interest in cycling.  Prior to that, the family supported Keith in his time trial races around Merseyside.  Afterwards they would stop off at the Eureka cafe, a meeting place for cyclists since the 1930s, and then go swimming or for a picnic.  As he got older, Chris became more aware of his father’s success at these events, and then became interested in participating himself.  Chris’ competitive nature was already beginning to show in his swimming but cycling was soon to dominate Chris’ leisure time.
In October 1982 he joined his parent’s club; the Birkenhead Victoria, and natural ability together with a training programme devised by Keith, paid off with a steady improvement.  The combination of time trials with track and road racing was considered by Keith to be an ideal foundation for the future.  In 1983 Chris moved to the North Wirral Velo and soon after this his debut into track racing at Kirkby in Liverpool took place on a bike recovered from a skip!  Something of a far cry from the Lotus “Super bike” he was to ride to Gold Medal victory at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.  Despite this, Chris won his first race.

biography

Christopher Boardman was born into a cycling family in the small town of Hoylake, Wirral on 26th August 1968.  Although his father, Keith was an enthusiastic cyclist who was short listed for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, it was not until Chris was thirteen that he began to show a real interest in cycling.  Prior to that, the family supported Keith in his time trial races around Merseyside.  Afterwards they would stop off at the Eureka cafe, a meeting place for cyclists since the 1930s, and then go swimming or for a picnic.  As he got older, Chris became more aware of his father’s success at these events, and then became interested in participating himself.  Chris’ competitive nature was already beginning to show in his swimming but cycling was soon to dominate Chris’ leisure time.
In October 1982 he joined his parent’s club; the Birkenhead Victoria, and natural ability together with a training programme devised by Keith, paid off with a steady improvement.  The combination of time trials with track and road racing was considered by Keith to be an ideal foundation for the future.  In 1983 Chris moved to the North Wirral Velo and soon after this his debut into track racing at Kirkby in Liverpool took place on a bike recovered from a skip!  Something of a far cry from the Lotus “Super bike” he was to ride to Gold Medal victory at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.  Despite this, Chris won his first race.
In May 1984, still riding ‘the frame from the skip’ Chris began racing in the weekly track league at Kirkby.  Soon, with the help of his father’s former coach, Eddie Soens, and the loan of Eddie’s proper track bike, the qualities essential to a top athlete were becoming apparent.  With Eddie’s expert guidance, Chris enjoyed numerous titles in national juvenile and junior championships.  Ironically it was at one of his unsuccessful races that his future wife Sally-Ann was amongst the crowd and the fifteen year olds attention was drawn to the dejected young cyclist. They were to meet again that same year at the cycling club’s annual dinner.
Sadly, Eddie Soens died in 1985, after he saw Chris’ first senior championship win.  As a tribute to his influence, Chris and Sally’s first son born after their marriage in 1988 was named after him.
Chris continued with his time trials, and from 1987 was seeking work as a cabinet-maker in addition to following a more scientific system of training with Peter Keen, his new trainer, who was to become an important factor in Chris’ career.  This system was a revolutionary method consisting of four levels and based on quality rather than quantity.  It was to result in even greater victories such as; Olympic Gold medal, Olympic and Multi-World Records, Multi-National Championships and three Commonwealth Games Medals.
The pinnacle of Chris’ career so far must be the taking of the World Hour Record in July 1993 at Bordeaux.  His attempt coincided with the climax of the Tour de France and cultivated an enormous amount of attention from the world’s press.  A great deal of time, effort, money and risk is required for such an ambitious venture, so the result was immensely gratifying.  In spite   of the extreme heat and humidity in the velodrome, Chris eclipsed the previous record made by Graeme Obree only six days earlier by 674m, riding 52.270km in the hour.
Chris turned professional in September 1993 and joined Gan, arguably the leading French professional team.  He made an impressive first appearance in the colours of his new team, winning the Grand Prix Eddy Merckx in Brussels and prompting that race’s namesake to say it was; “great for the race and for the sport in general.”
Chris’ first year as a professional had an excellent start in his first Tour de France he won the prologue time trial stage - holding the Leader’s yellow jersey for three days.  He then followed this with two World Championship titles in Italy.
The Tour de France that was to follow in 1995 proved to be a different story.  In the Brittany port of Saint-Brieuc with torrential rain making conditions treacherous, Chris crashed out in the prologue after just three kilometres.  He sustained multiple fractures of his ankle and a broken wrist.  This effectively ended his season.
During the following season, 1996, Chris bounced back and had arguably his most successful year taking Bronze in the Olympic time trial event behind Miguel Induran and Abram Olano of Spain, winning the World Individual Pursuit title, twice breaking the world record in the process and smashing the World One Hour Record with a distance of 56.375 kilometres.
Over the next two four years he went on to repeat these successes with more Tour de France stage wins and World Championship medals, but as the year 2000 approached, Chris decided that his original decision to stop racing at age 32 was still a sound one.
Subsequently, he retired on the 27th of October 2000.
His last ever event as a professional cyclist was in Manchester, in front of a packed stadium where he broke, by just ten meters, the original Hour Record Mark set by Eddy Merckx
Now retired and at home his wife Sally and their five children; Edward (11), Harriet (9), George (7) Oscar (6) and Sonny (4 months) Chris is busier than ever.
He works as a journalist for the countries biggest Diving magazine, (Chris’s other passion) DIVER, he manages to stay in touch with his former colleagues through his work with the Society de Tour de France, he also provides a consult antsy service to a number of sporting organisations and speaks at a limited number of functions each year.
Chris is also a former Member of the English Sports Council, vice-president of the North West Sports Aid Foundation, the North West ministerial advisor for sport and Patron of a local children’s charity ‘Claire House’.

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