U.S. Racer Dave Zabriskie Discusses Bike Crashes, Road Safety
Turns out even the fastest cyclists in the world still have to contend with oblivious and dangerous drivers, at least when they're not racing on a closed course. David Zabriskie, current U.S. time trial champion and winner of three cycling grand tour stages, recently told a capacity crowd in Larkspur, California, that he has been whacked three times by cars while riding in the United States.
Photo: Garmin Sliptstream“I’m still crooked on a bike,” Zabriskie said during his Larkspur talk, a fundraiser for the bike safety charity Yield to Life, which he founded. Yield to Life attempts to humanize cyclists in the eyes of motorists and encourage drivers to give riders space on the road.
He joked that when crowded by cars during rides he often thinks about the use of Tazer guns, but instead insists he just gives drivers a friendly wave. He says he still wonders whether the Salt Lake City driver was thinking of him “as life, as a living, breathing person, rather than an obstacle in her way.” If she had waited a split second for him to pass he would not have spent months in a wheelchair nor needed to use a walker during rehabilitation.
Zabriskie also spoke about lighter issues, saying that he’s a Battlestar Galactica fan and watches it to unwind, that German cyclist Jens Voigt, racing with Team CSC, knows more about American pop culture than anyone and that Zabriskie is inspired by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1970s movie “Pumping Iron.”
Of Lance Armstrong, a former teammate from his US Postal days, Zabriskie said this year, with Armstrong’s return to racing, “He was like an uncle. He was the most relaxed I’ve seen him. He was the nicest I’ve seen and he talked to everyone.”
