Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

Career Abdoujaparov was born in Tashkent to a Crimean Tatar family which was forcibly deported to Uzbekistan during Soviet rule. Abdoujaparov had numerous tussles with Laurent Jalabert in the Tour de France's green sprinters jersey competition in the early 1990s. In 1991 Abdoujaparov won the competition despite a spectacular crash during the final stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where he collided with the barriers 100 m before the finish and somersaulted into the air. Despite still holding enough points to win the sprinters' jersey, he had to cross the line unaided. Members of his team picked him up, put him back on the bike, and he rode slowly over the last few meters, medical staff walking alongside him.

In his last complete tour in 1996, Abdoujaparov achieved a mountain breakaway for his last stage win, unusual for a sprinter. By this stage, though, results were not as good, and after failing seven separate anti-doping tests during the 1997 season, including twice at the 1997 Tour de France, he retired from cycling. He failed the tests screening for the presence in his body of, among others, the anti-asthma drug clenbuterol.

Abdoujaparov, a British rock band formed by former Carter USM guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter, is named after him.

Major results

1985 Tour de l'Avenir

1st Stage 6b Giro Ciclistico d'Italia 1st Stages 4, 6 & 9 Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire 1st Stages 4a & 4b 1987 Peace Race 1st Stages 7, 11 & 14 3rd Gran Premio Palio del Recioto 1988 Peace Race

1st Stages 1 & 12 Tour de Pologne 1st Stages 2, 6 & 7 5th Road race, Olympic Games 1989 1st Stage 1 Peace Race 3rd Gran Premio della Liberazione 1990 8th Coppa Bernocchi 1991 1st Gent–Wevelgem 1st Giro del Piemonte Tour de France

1st Stages 1 & 4 1st Stage 7 Volta a Catalunya 1st Stage 1 Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali Vuelta a Murcia 1st Stages 2 & 4b 4th Milan–San Remo 1992 Vuelta a España

1st Stages 2a, 4, 11 & 21 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Stages 5a & 6 1st Stage 3 Tour of Britain 1993 Tour de France

1st Stages 3, 18 & 20 Vuelta a España 1st Stages 9, 12 & 20 1st Stage 10 Tour de Suisse 3rd Gent–Wevelgem 4th Overall Three Days of De Panne 1994 1st Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen 1st Polynormande Tour de France

1st Stages 1 & 20 Giro d'Italia

1st Stage 10 Paris–Nice 1st Stages 3 & 8a 1st Stage 10 Tour DuPont 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne 1st Stages 1 & 3a 2nd Overall Ronde van Nederland 1st Stages 2 & 4 2nd Classic Haribo 3rd Scheldeprijs 5th Gent–Wevelgem 1995 1st Stage 20 Tour de France 1st Stage 3 Tour DuPont 5th Scheldeprijs 10th Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen 1996 1st Stage 14 Tour de France 1st Stage 2 Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stage 1 Vuelta a Murcia 1st Stage 2 Giro di Sardegna 3rd Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato 1997 1st La Côte Picarde 1st Stage 7 Four Days of Dunkirk Critérium du Dauphiné Liberé 1st Stages 1 & 3