article by Nicholas Pucci
Briton Chris Boardman finished thirteenth in the track pursuit race at the 1988 Seoul Games. But for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics the 24-year-old from Hoylake has in store a series of performances of the highest technical content, and they will be worth the gold medal.
To the five-circle review Boardman shows up with a revolutionary bicycledesigned by Mike Burrows and built by the automaker Lotus, weighing only 9 kg. And the difference with the vehicles of the other competitors is evident.
Already qualifyingJuly 27 at Velodrom d’Hortawith, the Briton debuts with a new world record (the distance is four thousand metres), 4’27″357, improving by four seconds the previous limit set by the Soviet Umaras, who won the gold medal in Korea. In the second round Boardman does even better4’24″496, accessing the semifinals where his main opponents seem to be the German Jens Lehmann and the New Zealander Gary Anderson, while the blue Ivan Beltrami, already present in Seoul, and the Dutch Servais Knaven (who will win a Paris-Roubaix in 2001) are among those eliminated.
In the semifinal Boardman travels at less impressive times, just enough to get the better of the Australian Kingslandwhile Lehmann himself, who in 1991 was the world champion of the specialty among the amateurs, clearly beats Anderson and qualifies for the final with the ambition of trying to compete with the Lotus Superbike by Boardman. In truth the decisive act, on July 29, has no history, Boardman even doubles his rival and puts the gold medal around his neck.
Once a professional, Chris will have an important career, winning the prologue three times at the Tour de France (1994 in Lille, 1997 in Rouen and 1998 in Dublin) thus wearing the yellow jersey for a total of six days, putting the Nations Grand Prix in 1993 and the Criterium International in 1996, winning the time trial at the World Championships in Agrigento in 1994 and those in Manchester in 1996and then finally setting the hour record for the first time on July 23, 1993, 52.270 kilometers snatching it from the Scotsman Graeme Obree who had made it a week earlier, and a second on 7 September 1996 in Manchester, 56.375 kilometres. when then theUCI decided in 2000 to eliminate the records obtained with special bicycles, Boardman returned to the saddle in the same year, beating by 10 meters the previous limit set by Merckx, 49.431 kilometres, which had stood since 1972.
An absolute specialist in racing against the clock, and who can really dispute that?
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