# Leigh Howard

Leigh Howard (born 18 October 1989) is an Australian professional racing cyclist. He qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in both the Men's Madison and Men's Team Pursuit. Howard was part of the Men's team pursuit together with Kelland O'Brien, Sam Weisford and Alexander Porter. They secured a bronze medal after overlapping New Zealand who had crashed. Howard also competed in the Men's Madison where the team finished fifth with a time of 3:48.448 and therefore did not qualify for the final.

## Career

Born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, Howard now resides in Waurn Ponds, Victoria. He began cycling competitively at the age of 10 and first represented Australia in 2005 at the age of 16. Howard is an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, and initially trained as an automobile electrician.
Howard won the bronze medal in the omnium event at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. He went on to take several medals in round 2 and 4 of the 2008–09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics. In 2009, he again won a medal in the omnium at the World Championships, this time taking gold, he also took the silver medal in both the madison and team pursuit. Howard also had success on the road in 2009, winning stages 1 and 3 of the Tour of Japan.
Howard become a professional rider in 2010 with Team HTC–Columbia. In his first professional race with team HTC Columbia, Howard won the fourth stage of the Tour of Oman. Impressively, Howard finished ahead of Daniele Bennati, Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar on the stage. After two years with the team, Howard moved to GreenEDGE for the 2012 season. In November 2015 IAM Cycling announced that Howard would join them for the 2016 season, with a role as part of the sprint train for Matteo Pelucchi.
Howard last rode for UCI Continental team Pro Racing Sunshine Coast.

## Major results
### Road
#### 2006

    3rd Time trial, National Junior Championships

#### 2007

    Tour of Tasmania
       1st Stages 1, 4 & 7

#### 2008

    1st Overall Tour of the Murray River
       1st Stages 5 & 13
    1st Coppa Colli Briantei Internazionale
    Tour of Gippsland
       1st Stages 6 & 8
    Tour of Tasmania
       1st Stages 1 & 8
    1st Stage 2 Australian Cycling Grand Prix
    10th Overall Tour de Berlin
       1st Stage 2

#### 2009

    1st Overall Tour of Gippsland
       1st Stages 2, 3, 6 & 9
    1st Overall Okolo Slovenska
    1st Classic Astico – Brenta
    Tour of Japan
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 1, 3 & 7
    1st Stage 1 Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
    4th Circuito del Porto
    8th Giro del Belvedere

#### 2010 (2 pro wins)

    1st Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
    1st Stage 4 Tour of Oman
    1st Sprints classification, Bayern–Rundfahrt

#### 2011 (1)

    1st Stage 5 Ster Elektrotoer
    3rd Trofeo Cala Millor
    4th Grand Prix de Denain

#### 2012 (1)

    1st Stage 2 (TTT) Eneco Tour
    3rd Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Stage 2

#### 2013 (2)

    1st Trofeo Campos–Santanyí–Ses Salines
    1st Trofeo Platja de Muro
    8th Vuelta a La Rioja

#### 2014

    5th Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie
    7th Overall Tour of Alberta

#### 2015

    6th RideLondon–Surrey Classic

#### 2016 (2)

    1st Clásica de Almería
    1st Stage 1 Tour des Fjords
    2nd Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

#### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | DNF | — | — | DNF |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | — | — | 172 |
| Vuelta a España | 152 | — | 142 | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |

### Track
#### 2006

    1st Team pursuit, UCI World Junior Championships
    National Junior Championships
       1st Scratch
       2nd Kilo
       2nd Madison (with Alex Smyth)
       2nd Team pursuit
       3rd Individual pursuit

#### 2007

    UCI World Junior Championships
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Madison (with Glenn O'Shea)
       3rd Individual pursuit
    National Junior Championships
       1st Kilo
       1st Omnium
       1st Individual pursuit
    UIV Cup
       1st Amsterdam
       1st Dortmund
    3rd Madison, National Championships (with Travis Meyer)

#### 2008

    National Championships
       1st Madison (with Glenn O'Shea)
       1st Scratch
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Individual pursuit
    UIV Cup
       1st Amsterdam
       1st Munich
    2nd Omnium, UCI World Championships
    2nd Scratch, UCI World Cup Classics, Melbourne

#### 2009

    UCI World Championships
       1st Omnium
       2nd Madison (with Cameron Meyer)
       2nd Team pursuit
    UCI World Cup Classics, Beijing
       1st Team pursuit
       1st Madison (with Glenn O'Shea)
    National Championships
       2nd Team pursuit
       3rd Individual pursuit

#### 2010

    UCI World Championships
       1st Madison (with Cameron Meyer)
       2nd Omnium
    UCI World Cup Classics
       1st Team pursuit, Beijing
       1st Team pursuit, Melbourne
       1st Madison, Melbourne (with Cameron Meyer)

#### 2011

    1st Madison, UCI World Championships (with Cameron Meyer)
    1st Madison, Oceania Championships (with Cameron Meyer)
    1st Madison, National Championships (with Glenn O'Shea)
    2nd Six Days of Berlin (with Cameron Meyer)

#### 2012

    1st Six Days of Berlin (with Cameron Meyer)

#### 2018

    1st Team pursuit, Commonwealth Games
    Oceania Championships
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Omnium
    National Championships
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Madison (with Jordan Kerby)
    UCI World Cup
       1st Team pursuit, Berlin
       2nd Scratch, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
       3rd Madison, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (with Kelland O'Brien)
    2nd Six Days of London (with Kelland O'Brien)

#### 2019

    1st Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
    National Championships
       1st Madison (with Glenn O'Shea)
       1st Team pursuit
    UCI World Cup
       1st Team pursuit, Brisbane
       2nd Team pursuit, Cambridge
       3rd Madison, Glasgow (with Sam Welsford)
    2nd Scratch, Oceania Championships

#### 2020

    3rd Madison, National Championships (with Sam Welsford)

#### 2021

    1st Madison, National Championships (with Glenn O'Shea)
    3rd Team pursuit, Olympic Games