Rob Hayles
British cyclist (born 1973)

Robert John Hayles (born 21 January 1973) is an English track and road racing cyclist, who rode for Great Britain and England on the track and several professional teams on the road. Hayles competed in the team pursuit and Madison events, until his retirement in 2011. He now occasionally provides studio-based analysis of cycle races for British Eurosport.
01Career
He first represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, where he rode the team pursuit. Hayles represented England in the points race and team pursuit at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, he won silver in the individual pursuit. He was a member of the pursuit team that came third, and rode the Madison with Bradley Wiggins, finishing fourth.
From 2001 to 2003, Hayles rode for the Cofidis team in France.
During this time Hayles rode the Paris-Roubaix classic, one of cycling's five 'monuments', three times but was unable to finish the race on any occasion. Hayles still reports to love the paved classic despite his own poor fortune.
In March 2008, he was withdrawn from the Great Britain team at the world track championships in Manchester, and was suspended for 14 days after a blood test showed a haematocrit 0.3% above the limit. His licence was restored after two weeks. The rules regarding haematocrit testing for track cycling were subsequently changed as the resting period before an event can cause the red cell volume to exceed 50%, with subsequent blood tests often proving the riders to be clean.
He won the 2008 national road championships but was not selected to represent Great Britain in the Beijing Olympics.
On 1 November 2008, he returned to the team pursuit for the Manchester round of the World Cup series.
02Personal life
As a child, Hayles lived in Cowplain, Hampshire and attended Padnell Junior School. Hayles' father John Hayles, who died in 2016, was an amateur racing cyclist who became a professional wrestler in his twenties. Hayles lives in Hayfield, Derbyshire, with his wife, former Olympic swimmer Vicky Horner, and their daughter, born 23 January 2006.
03Major results
Road
- 1996
- Tour de Langkawi
- 1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 7
- 1997
- 2nd Overall Premier Calendar
- 2000
- 1st National Criterium Championships
- 2004
- 1st Stage 7 Tour de Normandie
- 2008
- 1st Road race, National Championships
- 1st Beaumont Trophy
- 1st Tour of Pendle
- 1st Blackpool Grand Prix
- 2nd National Criterium Championships
- 2009
- 2nd National Criterium Championships
- 2nd Colne Town Centre Grand Prix
Track
- 1993
- 1st Kilo, National Championships
- 1994
- National Championships
- 1st Kilo
- 1st Madison (with Bryan Steel)
- 2nd Team pursuit, Commonwealth Games
- 1995
- 1st Madison, National Championships (with Russell Williams)
- 1996
- 1st Points race, National Championships
- 1997
- National Championships
- 1st Points race
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 1st Madison (with Russell Williams)
- 1998
- National Championships
- 2nd Team pursuit, Commonwealth Games
- 1999
- National Championships
- 1st Points race
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 1st Madison (with Bradley Wiggins)
- 2000
- National Championships
- 1st Points race
- 1st Individual pursuit
- UCI World Championships
- 2nd Team pursuit
- 3rd Individual pursuit
- 2nd Six Days of Grenoble (with Bradley Wiggins)
- 3rd Team pursuit, Olympic Games
- 2003
- 2nd Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
- 3rd Individual pursuit, National Championships
- 2004
- UCI World Championships
- 2nd Individual pursuit
- 2nd Team pursuit
- Olympic Games
- 2nd Team pursuit
- 3rd Madison (with Bradley Wiggins)
- 2005
- UCI World Championships
- 1st Madison (with Mark Cavendish)
- 1st Team pursuit
- 2006
- Commonwealth Games
- 1st Team pursuit
- 2nd Individual pursuit
- 2nd Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Rob Hayles”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Tour Series 2009 (3589284061) (cropped).jpg by John Bointon from Watford, UK, CC BY 2.0
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