How to Wear a Cycling Cap: Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

 Who, if they followed bike racing during the 1990s could ever forget Djamolidine Mirgarifanovich Abdoujaparov? The Tashkent Terror, so nicknamed for the often times erratic ferocity of his sprinting ability, which saw him win nine stages of the Tour de France between 1991 and 1996.

Mario Cipollini, master of the next generation of sprinters, whose time at the head of the train overlapped with that of Abdou, once purportedly complained, "If I find him in the showers, I'll tear him to pieces." Another highly-descriptive quote about Djamolidine's sprint style was printed in Velo a number of years ago (more than eleven to be exact): "Abdoujaparov was a wrecking ball of a sprinter, his hulking body careering up and across the road. Watching him sprint was like seeing a fight spill out of a pub, all arms and legs and violence..." (Matt de Neef)

Like so many racers from that era, Abdoujaparov's career ended with a series of positive drug tests in 1997. Before those, and in addition to those nine career stage wins at the Tour de France, he also won a stage of the 1994 Giro d'Italia, where he won the points classification, six stages in the Vuelta a Espana between 1992 and 1993, and the points classification in 1992, and the points classification in the 1991, 1993 and 1994 Tour de France. He collected additional major wins beginning in 1984 at the Tour de l'Avenir, Circuit de la Sarthe the Peace Race, Tour de Pologne, Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Suisse, Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen, Paris-Nice, Tour DuPont, Tirreno-Adriatico, Vuelta a Murcia, Four Days of Dunkirk and, in 1991, the semi-classic Ghent-Wevelgem, among others.

His most renown escapade may have come during the final stage of the 1991 Tour de France in a spectacular crash into the barriers with 100 metres to go; only needing to cross the finish line to win the green jersey, his teammates picked him up, set him on his bike, and watched him slowly ride to finish. If you've seen it you remember it.