Professional Career and Tour De France
Having started his cycling career as a time trial specialist, he turned professional with the GAN team, later renamed the Crédit Agricole team, of manager Roger Legeay of France.
His first race as a professional was the 1993 Grand Prix Eddy Merckx, a 66 km time trial which he won. He further won several stages of the Midi Libre and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage races, including the final road stage.
He won fame by winning the prologue of the 1994 Tour de France with the fastest time ever recorded, but lost the Yellow jersey in a team time trial. He was hailed as the UK's future Tour de France winner, despite his own insistence that it was a long shot. After retirement he said he was not able to recover from the rigours of stage racing due to a low hormone profile. "I've always had it, it's probably been that way since I was born, but because of the type of racing that I did in the past, it was not a problem."
In the 1995 Tour de France, he crashed at the prologue and was forced to quit.
The 1996 Tour de France saw him make a timid return in the wet and rainy prologue where he was beaten by Alex Zülle into second place.
However, he made a comeback in the 1997 Tour de France by winning the prologue of the Tour again, although a crash forced him to quit in the 13th stage.
In 1998 Tour de France, when the Tour began in Dublin, Ireland, he won the prologue but crashed on stage 2 while wearing the yellow jersey.
In 1998 he was diagnosed with an illness like Osteoporosis. Treatment for this condition meant that Boardman needed hormone replacement therapy, necessitating that Boardman take Testosterone. As a professional cyclist, it was against the sport's doping rules for Boardman to take testosterone. Boardman chose to continue in cycling for a further two years and hoped to finish his career on a high note at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
His preparation was affected by missing the 1999 Tour de France due to sinus problems. Boardman came eleventh in the time trial at the Olympics.
Read more about this topic: Chris Boardman
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