Three men on bikes are on a 22-mile ride along the lanes of the Wirral. As they pull up at a junction, two unclip one pedal and put a foot down to wait for the traffic to pass. The third does a track stand — balancing his bike, motionless, both feet clipped firmly into the pedals — until the traffic passes. But then he is Chris Boardman.

Nearly a decade after retiring as a professional cyclist, Boardman has lost none of the ability and, it seems, none of his condition. He looks as fit as he was when he was one of the world’s fastest cyclists. He recently finished the London Marathon in 3hr 19min.

They set off again and Boardman is out of the saddle, dancing on the pedals to quickly reach cruising speed, which for him is easy enough to have a conversation with Andy Smallwood, another of the riders. For mere mortals, the rest of us, such a pace is flat out. Then again, a ride in the country would constitute a leisure outing, but for Boardman and Mr Smallwood, product manager for premium brand cycles at Halfords, this is business.

As a pursuit rider and time-trial specialist, Boardman combined strength and strategy to overcome rivals. His passion for technology earned him the soubriquet The Professor among his peers and he has carried that passion for technology into a partnership that harnesses the purchasing power and marketing muscle of Halfords to grind out another, less visible success — Boardman bikes.

In a masterstroke of timing and branding, Boardman and Halfords, the car parts and bicycle retailer, combined to produce a range of premium cycles, one of which Nicole Cooke rode to victory in the Olympic road race in Beijing last year.

It was a leap of faith. The lucrative premium market is dominated by brands such as Specialized, Scott, Trek and Giant. Boardman had been approached many times to put his name to a bicycle brand, but he wanted to be fully involved in the product.

“It was Alan Ingarfield [the former triathlete] who pushed the idea,” Boardman said. “Alan had an investor and he wanted to do something different. Suddenly the investment was there, the idea was there and a route to market that allowed the proper amount of R&D. It was the right mix, so I agreed.”

For years Halfords has sold one in three bikes in the UK, mostly at the lower end of the market, especially the Apollo and Carrera brands. According to David Wild, the Halfords chief executive: “We’ve always had this worry that we don’t sell enough premium bikes. The management team said we really need to do something serious about this, and that was how the relationship started. The truth is that Boardman has been a lot more successful than we expected. It has exceeded all expectations.”

In its first year of production, Boardman sold more than 10,000 bicycles, equating to £5 million in sales. This year Halfords hopes to sell more than double that number.

Halfords BikeHut took up sponsorship of British Cycling in March last year, before the Olympics, and now the road-racing, mountain bike and triathlon teams all ride Boardman bikes — yet the British cycling team’s achievements in Beijing were founded on a victory 17 years ago, when Boardman struck gold in Barcelona in 1992. Until that moment, when the rider from Hoylake swept the opposition aside in the 4,000 metres individual pursuit, no Briton had won an Olympic cycling gold for 72 years.

Mr Wild said: “What Team GB has done by their success in the Olympics is awaken interest in cycling in the UK. They lifted the standard and interest in cycling. And with the Olympics being in London in three years’ time, we can focus our energies on that.”

While some cyclists dismiss Halfords’ BikeHut offshoot, Boardman is clearly comfortable with the partnership. He says that Halfords’ business sense is crucial, while he retains the final say on the product.

“I’ve got right of sign-off on every little bolt, I can say no to any product. I’ve got full control over that — and responsibility if it’s not right, of course. And it’s allowed us to do this kind of stuff” — Boardman gestures toward the carbon-fibre bike that he has been riding, the same, incidentally, that Cooke rode to Beijing gold — “at prices that people haven’t been able to do in this country. To get involved at Olympic level, all in the 18 months, we just would not have been able to move that fast with any other partner. And to have someone winning an Olympic gold medal on your [bike], a bike that is just over a year old, is awesome.”

So how does Boardman, the man, feel about becoming Boardman, the brand? “It’s very odd. I’m just starting to learn to disassociate myself from the name, really. I can talk about it as the Boardman team and I don’t think about myself. But it’s still a bit uncomfortable, to be honest, it is a bit weird.

“If my name was going to be on something, I wanted to really like the product and enjoy it, not just make money out of it.”

Behind the story: An hour of sporting perfection

What was the highlight of Chris Boardman’s cycling career? “It’s probably not what most people expect,” Boardman said.

“In 1992, winning the Olympic gold medal really opened the door — that was the first proof, really, that what you do — the lifestlyle, everything — really works. So that was the first rite of passage. From a business point of view, wholly different, was first stage of Tour de France in 1994. To win that, the first yellow jersey [won by a Briton] in I don’t know how many years, that was special, and that cemented a professional career.

“But from my personal satisfaction point of view, that would be the hour record in 1996, because that was physically the best performance I ever produced. Form-wise it was perfect, even the air pressure was really low, the temperature was perfect. It was all bang on and it was the only thing I can think of in an entire career that I can’t go back on and think there is something I could do differently. We used to look at everything afterwards, pull it apart and look at what could we do better, so that was particularly satisfying . . . And it feels like another lifetime now.”

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