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Chris Boardman: my five favourite pieces of cycling kit
The great innovator of British cycling gives a rundown of his essential guide on what to eat, ride, wear and carry on bike rides
During the Barcelona Olympics in the summer of 1992, a cabinet-maker from the Wirral won an emphatic gold in the 4,000m individual pursuit. It was Great Britain’s first cycling gold medal for 72 years and delivered by a man riding a bicycle that looked like something out of a science fiction film.
Chris Boardman’s all black machine was designed by the Formula One team Lotus, sculpted out of various materials – mainly carbon - and sitting on three-spoke wheels. It went like a rocket. A year later at Bordeaux’s Velodrome du Lac, Boardman broke cycling’s famous hour record, something he managed two times more. He is also three times prologue winner of the Tour de France.
The now 46-year-old remains known as the great innovator of British cycling - so when he tells you what to eat, wear and ride, it is worth listening. These are his favourite pieces of kit.
Padded lycra shorts
Boardman donned his first pair of lycra shorts in 1984, designed by a Wirral barber named Don Jenkins for the Birkenhead Victoria Cycling Club. The shorts were black and jersey in club colours of red, yellow and green. “He was cutting hair but making clothes at the same time,” Boardman says. “Nobody ever questioned it at the time.”
“Lycra has probably been the biggest advance over the years. It makes such a difference if you are comfy. Before that we wore this scratchy woollen hessian stuff - I don’t even know what it was called.
“Now there is a fashion for old-fashioned clothing but cycling cafes in those days used to be quite pungent. I remember realising that’s not actually what my dad smelt like. People didn’t even realise at the time but it made a huge difference to racing.
"It is not coincidence that a lot of records got broken at that time. Lycra was so much more aero-dynamic.”
Rain cape
“Rain capes have made a huge difference to me over the past few years because they are an item of clothing that is so light. Until five years ago they used to be plastic and big things and you would look at the weather and think you might get away without wearing one.
"Now rain capes or wind tops are really lightweight material and so small they fit in your pocket. If you get stuck in the rain it makes all the difference. Particularly descending mountains and things like that. Get good practical close fitting stuff and it doesn’t matter who it is made by.”
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Carbon forks
Boardman still speaks with paternal joy about his old “game-changing” Lotus bike. “They did things in an entirely different way. It was the first time ever somebody looked at the demands of the event rather than the history. It made people realise that carbon fibre didn’t have to be rolled into tubes and I think it changed the way people started to think about bikes.”
But of all the carbon products Boardman used in his professional career, he is most fond of a component which he commissioned from a small company called Hotta after a rule change around wheel size made the Lotus design obsolete.
“I designed and commissioned a set of carbon fibre handle bars and forks that were combined so I could still use the same riding position [as the Lotus bike]. I had it in the 1996 Tour de France and the hour record. That was the first bit of carbon I ever made and is in Liverpool museum now."
Boardman atop his iconic Lotus bike at the 1992 Olympics (Photo: Getty)
Self-adhesive puncture patches
Perhaps Boardman has in mind decades gone by when cyclists would be reduced to slinging spare tyres over their shoulders when he chooses the self-adhesive patch as an all-time favourite.
“The best thing of all to have in your pocket is self-adhesive patches which have only really taken hold in the last few years and they are so useful. As well as pocket pumps it means all the things you need just fit into one pocket. You’re not laden down with loads of stuff any more but it actually works.”
Alberto Contador munches a biscuit Photo: Getty
Jam sandwiches
Not for Chris Boardman, energy gels. “I absolutely hate anything like that and avoid it if I can help it. It’s not necessary for one and it’s not nice. I just take jam sandwiches – always strawberry. It gives you carbohydrate sugars and I’m fine with that. I only take water in my bottles as well.”
And as for his least favourite cycling accessory? It has to be the “altitude tent” he constructed in his house to help prepare for his hour record.
“We ended up kicking our son George (then six-years-old) out of his bedroom, sealing the room up and putting holes in the window frame. We had two generators outside that pumped in deoxygenated air so it felt like I was at about 10,000ft. I slept in the room, did training sessions on a turbo and watched television there 12 hours a day for about a month.”
The difference it made? “Absolutely sod all”.
Chris Boardman was talking at the Halfords' Summer Press Show