The following feature forms part of our 'I love the 1990s series,' with Ed Pickering going back to 1996 to recall how Chris Boardman probed his limits as a stage racer, pursuiter and time triallist, culminating in one indelible night in the Manchester velodrome.
On September 6 1996, Chris Boardman killed the Hour Record. In front of a cheering home crowd at the Manchester velodrome, who were slowly getting accustomed to British cycling success, Boardman rode 56.375 kilometres in 60 minutes. It was more than a kilometre further than the previous record, which had, in turn, been a kilometre and a half further than the one before that.
Nobody has got near that distance since. Nobody even tried until the Union Cycliste International fudged the rules, once in 2000 and then again in 2014, basically resetting the Hour so that people would have a chance. Over 20 years after Boardman’s record, which has now been reclassified in the tortured jargon of the UCI as the "best human effort”, the Hour Record stands at 54.526 kilometres, courtesy of Bradley Wiggins.
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The mid-1990s were a golden age for the Hour. Between 1984 and 1993, Francesco Moser’s record, 51.151 kilometres, was seen as untouchable, which is quaint, knowing what we know now. But then, over three years, the record was improved on no fewer than seven times, culminating in Boardman’s perfect hour. Graeme Obree broke Moser’s record; Boardman broke Obree’s record; Obree broke it back. Then the roadies got interested: Miguel Indurain, then Tony Rominger (twice) set new marks in 1994. Finally, Boardman set the definitive record.
The mid-1990s were also turbulent times in cycling’s ambivalent relationship with technology and innovation. Obree’s records were set using his ‘tuck’ position, in which he rode with his arms tucked in below his body on an upturned handlebar. The UCI banned that. Boardman’s 56-kilometre hour was set using the ‘superman’ position, also developed by Obree, in which a tri-bar was extended so the arms were straight out in front of the body. The UCI banned that, too.
But there was a lot more to the 1996 Hour than a banned position. Everything Chris Boardman could and couldn’t do as a racing cyclist was encapsulated in that one season, and to understand it we have to go back to the beginning of the year and beyond.
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