BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
In 1992, Chris Boardman won an Olympic Gold medal on the track. He was riding the famous Lotus superbike and the press credited much of his victory to that Mike Burrows designed bike.
Today at the Olympics, Nicole Cooke claimed the first Gold medal for Team GB in the Beijing Olympics, a victory that will assure her face will be on tomorrow’s newspaper front pages. She rode to victory on a cboardman Road Pro machine but it’s unlikely the bike will take centre-stage in the media because Cooke’s performance was clearly an individual one of great power and determination.
However, over on BBC Radio Five Live Chris Boardman was able to revel in the victory, with commentator Simon Brotherton pointing out to listeners that his co-commentator was responsible for the bike used to propel Cooke to Britain’s 200th Gold medal of the modern Olympics.
Was it the bike wot did it, asked Brotherton? "Absolutely," replied Boardman, jokingly, as he swiftly heaped praise on Cooke and her achievement of a lifetime’s ambition.
Boardman also co-commentates during ITV’s coverage of the Tour de France, a programme sponsored by Halfords Bikehut and which lovingly zooms up and down a cboardman carbon frame.
The standard cboardman bike range is available in Halfords Bikehut. The elite range, due out later in the year, is also being offered to independent bike shops.
Boardman Bikes is not a Halfords-owned brand. Chris Boardman is the tech manager. The general manager is Alan Ingerfield, a former UK Ironman champion. Former Madison MD Terry Bowles is the retail and marketing advisor to the company. The brand’s technical consultant is Dimitris Katsanis, developer of British Cycling’s £10,000 UK Sport Institute bike.
Boardman is also the chief nut nibbler in the "secret squirrel club", British Cycling’s performance equipment division.
Boardman Bikes – bike supplier to Team Halfords Bikehut – will no doubt plaster adverts with Nicole Cooke’s Olympic victory, helping to increase brand awareness.
