Rob Hayles

Rob Hayles

Hayles at the 2009 Tour Series in Milton Keynes
Personal information
Full name	Robert John Hayles
Born	(1973-01-21) 21 January 1973 (age 51) Portsmouth, England[1]
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Weight	80 kg (176 lb)[2]
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Track & Road
Role	Rider
Amateur teams
1994	Team Haverhill-Taylor's Foundry
1995	All Media-Futurama
1996–1997	Team Ambrosia
1998	Team Brite
1999	Tony Doyle Ltd-Clarkes Contracts
Professional teams
2001–2003	Cofidis
2005	Recycling.co.uk–MG X-Power
2007	Team KLR-Parker International
2009	Team Halfords
2010–2011	Endura Racing
Major wins
Road One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (2008) Track World Championships Madison (2005) Team pursuit (2005)
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Men's track cycling Olympic Games 2004 Athens Team pursuit 2004 Athens Madison 2000 Sydney Team pursuit Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne Team pursuit 2006 Melbourne Individual pursuit World Championships 2005 Los Angeles Team pursuit 2005 Los Angeles Madison 2006 Bordeaux Team pursuit 2004 Melbourne Individual pursuit 2004 Melbourne Team pursuit 2003 Stuttgart Team pursuit 2000 Manchester Team pursuit 2000 Manchester Individual pursuit

Robert John Hayles (born 21 January 1973) is a former 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.^[3] He now occasionally provides studio-based analysis of cycle races for British Eurosport.^[4]

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.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2008 he was withdrawn from the Great Britain team at the world track championships in Manchester,^[5] and was suspended for 14 days after a blood test showed a haematocrit 0.3%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.^[6] 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.^{[citation needed]}

He won the 2008 national road championships but was not selected to represent Great Britain in the Beijing Olympics.^[7]

On 1 November 2008 he returned to the team pursuit for the Manchester round of the World Cup series.

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.^[8] Hayles lives in Hayfield, Derbyshire, with his wife, former Olympic swimmer Vicky Horner, and their daughter, born 23 January 2006.^[9][10]

• Hayles, Rob (2013). Easy Rider: My Life on a Bike. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-593-07060-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Hayles.

• Official website