| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Zabriskie | |||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "The Green Hornet",[1] DZ, DZNuts, Dizzy, Captain America, Zup |
|||||||||||||||
| Born | January 12, 1979 Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America |
|||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||
| Weight | 67 kg (150 lb; 10.6 st) | |||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Garmin-Cervélo | |||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | |||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Time-Trialist | |||||||||||||||
| Professional team(s) | ||||||||||||||||
| 1999–2000 2001–2004 2005–2007 2008– |
7-UP/Colorado Cyclist US Postal Team CSC Slipstream-Chipotle |
|||||||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||
| Infobox last updated on January 3, 2012 |
||||||||||||||||
David Zabriskie (born January 12, 1979 in Salt Lake City) is a professional road bicycle racer from the United States who rides for Garmin-Cervélo.[2] His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stage wins in all three Grand Tour stage races and winning the US National Time Trial Championship six times. Zabriskie is known for his quirky nature, including singing before stages and the interviews he does with fellow riders in the professional peloton which are posted on his web site.
In 2005, he became the third American to wear the leader's jersey at the Tour de France, after three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond, and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong.[3] George Hincapie became the fourth American in 2006.
Contents |
Zabriskie graduated from Olympus High School in 1997, and made his professional debut with the Colorado Cyclist team in 1999. After displaying his talent for time trials by winning the US National Time Trial Championships (junior and under-23 age categories) and the Grand Prix des Nations (under-23 category), Zabriskie moved on to the US Postal team in 2001. Following a year plagued by crashes and injuries, he returned to form in 2004, winning the Elite US National Time Trial Championships. He also won stage 11 of the Vuelta a España in an astonishing 162 km solo breakaway, marking his first Grand Tour stage win—especially notable among his victories for not being a time trial. In the 2005 season Zabriskie switched to Team CSC, where he racked up another Grand Tour stage victory by winning the 8th stage of the 2005 Giro d'Italia.
Despite success on the international cycling scene, Zabriskie did not receive much attention in his native United States until the 2005 Tour de France, when he won the stage 1 time trial—making him the first American to win stages in all three Grand Tours. Zabriskie beat Lance Armstrong by two seconds clocking an average speed of 54.676 km/h. He wore the leaders yellow jersey, until the team time trial on stage 4, where he crashed within the final two kilometres, a crash determined as a chain slip though Zabriskie himself did not know what had happened.[4] After the crash, Zabriskie suffered from his injuries and on stage 8, he arrived last, 51'12" after winner Pieter Weening. Zabriskie abandoned in the 9th stage (from Gérardmer to Mulhouse), after 11 km. Before Zabriskie had fully recovered from his crash in the Tour de France, a swinging glass door at a restaurant shattered on his hand, injuring him badly enough to end his 2005 season.[5] Back home from the Tour de France, Zabriskie was honored in the American state of Utah by the declaration of "Dave Zabriskie Day" by both Salt Lake County mayor Peter Corroon and Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson.
Zabriskie's 2006 season started out well, with a strong 2nd place finish in the February stage race Amgen Tour of California, 29 seconds after the winner, countryman Floyd Landis. He was initially placed 3rd in the April stage race Ford Tour de Georgia, but as he lost time to the favourite riders on the Brasstown Bald mountain stage, he finished 6th place overall. Dave Zabriskie won two time trials in the Dauphiné Libéré in May, beating Floyd Landis in the prologue by two seconds, and winning Stage 3 by 53 seconds, again ahead of Landis, further proving Zabriskie's outstanding time trialing skills. Following several mountain stages, including a ride up the Mont Ventoux, Zabriskie finished the race in 32nd place, behind winner Levi Leipheimer.
Upon completing the 2006 Tour de France in 74th place, Zabriskie became the second American behind Christian Vandevelde to finish all three Grand Tours.
On September 1, 2007, Zabriskie won the US National Time Trial Championship for the third time. He finished The Cliffs South Carolina 18.7 mile course in 39 minutes, 34 seconds (28.4 miles/hour average speed) which was just one second ahead of second place finisher Danny Pate.
After helping his team win the Giro d'Italia first stage team time trial, Zabriskie crashed on May 11, 2008, in the second stage with several riders and had to abandon the race due to a fractured first vertebrae. Zabriskie was selected as one of the five riders for the US Olympic road race team and one of the two for the time trial.
Zabriskie placed 12th at 1:05:17.82, sans moustache, in the men's time trial at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, 3:06 behind race winner Fabian Cancellara.
Zabriskie won stage 6, the Individual Time Trial in the Tour of California. David was also key to Garmin-Cervélo’s successes in the 2011 Tour de France. Garmin-Cervélo win in the second stage team time trial propelled team leader Thor Hushovd into the yellow jersey. Thor stayed in the yellow jersey until stage 9, the stage Zabriskie seriously injured his wrist in a crash during a descent that also caused the withdrawal of Alexandre Vinokourov, Jurgen van den Broeck and Frederik Willems.
In 2005, Zabriskie married Randi Reich, a 2005 University of California at Berkeley alumna. In February 2009, thieves entered Zabriskie's home while he was away competing in the Tour of California and stole thousands of dollars of racing equipment and Olympic memorabilia[6] and his Marvel Action Figure collection.[7] Three men were charged in connection with the burglary.[8] David Zabriskie confirmed at the end of the 2010 cycling season that he is following a vegan diet[9], albeit with the addition of salmon[10].
DZ: Could I ask you a question?
AP: Yes.
DZ: Do you like Star Wars?
AP: Star Wars?
DZ: The movies.
AP: Yes.
DZ: Thank you.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Chris Baldwin Taylor Phinney |
USA National Time Trial Champion 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 2011 |
Succeeded by Taylor Phinney Incumbent |