Q & A Chris Boardman

The cycling tech wizard talks to Cyclist about his new wind-tunnel, the future of the ‘Superman’ Hour record and his battles with the Government.

- Mark Bailey

Cyclist: The Boardman Bikes Performance Centre is due to open in Evesham later this year, offering wind tunnel testing for amateur riders. How will it make riders better?

Chris Boardman: Cyclists love numbers. You can measure power to the watt and a pulse to the beat but for aerodynamics we just use guesswork even though this is where 90% of your energy is going. The Performance Centre is the big, fun, scary, exciting thing for me this year. We are building a bespoke wind-tunnel from scratch. We’re talking world-class here – not just blowing air on people but offering proper scientific testing and repeatability. I personally invested in it, just to show faith really, and all the evidence says it will be a success, but it will be exciting to see what happens.

Cyc: Will the Performance Centre be open to all levels of rider?

CB: We wanted to make it available at a cost that would be accessible to all people, not just elite athletes. So you have a basic price and you can then bolt things on or strip them out. People might come down with their club for a whole day or just go for an hour as an individual.

Cyc: What was the inspiration?