After the last stage of the 2013 Tour of Lombardy, David Zabriskie told the international press that he will not compete in professional cycling anymore. He stated that his body feels that it is time to stop.
This announcement meant the end of a remarkable career for the cyclist from the United States of America, with peaks but most definitely also with lows.
Very talented Zabriskie
‘Dizzy’ was born on 12 January 1979 in Salt Lake City (Utah) and after graduating from high school, he started his professional cycling career with the 7-UP/Colorado Cyclist team. Cycling experts noticed that Zabriskie was especially very talented in time trial competitions and after two years he left the Colorado team and signed a contract with the US Postal team.
During 2003, his career was put on hold, when a car hit him during bike-training, causing injuries to leg and wrist. It took a year before David Zabriskie could successfully return to cycling competitions. The most remarkable achievement that year was winning a stage in the Tour of Spain.
Tour of Italy and Tour de France stage wins
A year later he won a stage in the Tour of Italy and the first stage in the Tour de France, a time trial. By winning that stage, he was the first professional cyclist from the United States to win a stage in all three Grand Tours. However, after winning the first stage, the remainder of the 2005 Tour de France was not successful for David Zabriskie, who was in the meantime part of the CSC Team: he crashed during the team time trial in stage 4, causing him to abandon during stage 9. Back home in the United States, a glass door in a restaurant injured his hand, which meant the end of the 2005-season for ‘DZ’.
In the years that followed, Zabriskie won various time trial competitions and in 2008 he signed a contract with Garmin-Sharp. The American cyclist was however also still unlucky with various crashes, causing serious injuries to his vertebrae and wrist.
David Zabriskie and Lance Armstrong
David Zabriskie was one of the five cyclists who testified against former US Postal teammate Lance Armstrong, giving incriminating statements about the use of banned substances in the team and admitting he used doping himself as well. In exchange for this confession, Zabriskie was suspended for only six months.
