Education
He holds the record for the most Tours completed by a British rider – having finished 11 of the 12 he started between 1965 and 1978.
He holds the record for the most Tours completed by a British rider – having finished 11 of the 12 he started between 1965 and 1978.
He formerly held the record for the most stage wins in the Tour de France by a British rider, winning eight between 1967 and 1975. Hoban started cycle racing in 1955, and by the end of the year was competing against Tom Simpson in individual time trials. Despite his early prowess as a climber, Hoban later established himself as one of Europe"s best sprinters.
Inspired by the European successes of fellow Yorkshireman Brian Robinson and of Simpson, Hoban went to France in 1962, turned professional two years later, and stayed abroad for another 16 years.
He rode for Mercier-Hutchinson-Boite Postale where his team leader was Raymond Poulidor who is famous for coming second three times in the Tour de France but never winning. Hoban was single then and used to come back to Wakefield for the winter with a case full of used shorts/jerseys et cetera and sell them to the local riders (it wasn"t easy then to get good quality kit and what was available was expensive).
Dozens of riders in the BCF West Yorkshire division had a pair of shorts with Mercier Hutchinson embroidered on the legs. Back then, the best frames were hand-built British ones and Maurice Woodrup, a Leeds frame builder, would have a new frame sprayed Mercier pink waiting for him each year.
He would take it back to have Mercier transfers attached.
He competed in the team pursuit at the 1960 Summer Olympics. In the ’Monument’ Classics, his best performances were third places in Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1969) and Paris–Roubaix (1972). At least one bicycle was made with his name on it, including Barry Hoban-badged frames made by Coventry Cycles (later trading as Coventry Eagle).
This is a common practice of retired racing cyclists.
Hoban lives in Mid-Wales after moving there to work with the factory that built his frames. In 2009 he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.