Erik Zabel

From BiciPedia

Template:Cyclist infobox Erik Zabel (born July 7 1970 in Berlin) is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour Team Milram. With 193 career wins he is considered to be one of the greatest German cyclists and best sprinters of cycling history. Zabel has won a record nine points classification titles at Grand Tours including wearing the final green jersey in the Tour de France a record six consecutive years between 1996 through 2001 and the points jersey at the Vuelta a España in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Beyond his Grand Tours accomplishments, Zabel has won the Classic race Milan-Sanremo four times and numerous six-day track cycling events.

Contents 1 Career 2 Doping confession 3 Major achievements 4 External links 5 References

Career

Zabel grew up in East Berlin. After good results as an amateur cyclist, he became a professional in 1992 for a small German team. In 1993 he changed teams to Team Telekom (the later T-Mobile Team). There he became a good sprinter. His biggest strength was his all-round ability: whereas specialist sprinters such as Mario Cipollini would leave the big stage races before the mountain stages, Erik Zabel could climb reasonably well. This meant that, apart from being able to take the yellow jersey (maillot jaune) in the Tour de France thanks to the time bonuses, he could pick up further victories in latter stages, when other sprinters had retired, and take the green jersey (maillot vert) to Paris. One of his most memorable victories in securing the green jersey was in the 2001 Tour de France when his competition with Australian Stuart O'Grady continued all the way to the final stage in Paris, where Zabel's better placing finally took the green jersey off O'Grady's shoulders. However, in recent seasons he has been beaten by Australian Robbie McEwen in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and Baden Cooke in 2003.

In 2004, Zabel began the season losing what would have been his fifth Milan-Sanremo to Óscar Freire because he lifted his arms to celebrate too soon. Then, after 9 victories throughout the season (and 18 second places) Zabel ended it just as he had begun it: second behind Freire, this time in the World Cycling Championship in Verona.

Zabel is well-known for his discipline in training, and admits that he really enjoys riding a bicycle and training. He is one of the few current road cyclists who race all year long, including track cycling events in the winter. For this character, he is often compared to the other star of his former team, Jan Ullrich. Walter Godefroot, manager of T-Mobile Team, commented that if only Ullrich had the discipline of Zabel, his team would have won many editions of the Tour de France. In return, Zabel commented that his approach to training is not universally applicable to all cyclists, and that he appreciates the presence of a star of Ullrich's popularity on the team to take the pressure off of him. Zabel also said in a recent interview that he has always admired Godefroot's race results, and that he considers Godefroot as a father figure.

He was not selected for the 2005 Tour de France, possibly because T-mobile team wanted to go fully for Ullrich's chances in the General Classification.

For the 2006 season he is riding for Team Milram. Zabel had a strong season, claiming two victories in the 2006 Vuelta. More surprisingly, he finished 2nd at the World Championship. At the age of 36, Zabel is still able to ride for big victories.

On 27 April 1994 Erik Zabel tested positive for Clostebolmetabolin in Veenendal. After he made a plea he was fined 3000 Swiss franc and cut back 50 points in his points record. A suspension on probation was cancelled.^[1]

Doping confession

On 24 May 2007 Zabel together with former Team Telekom team mate and personal friend Rolf Aldag admitted having used Erythropoietin (EPO) in preparation for the 1996 Tour de France. In the press conference he said that he experimented with EPO for a week, but did stop then due to severe side effects. Zabel also publicly apologized for having lied about his use of EPO in the past. ^[2]

Zabel's confession was triggered by accusations of former Team Telekom masseur Jef d'Hont from Belgium and the confessions of Bert Dietz, Udo Bölts, Christian Henn all former members of Team Telekom.

In d'Honts book, of which excerpts where printed in the German political magazine Der Spiegel in April 2007, he accused members of Team Telekom of systematic and organized doping with EPO in the mid-1990s. ^[3] Zabel rested during certain sentences about his son, who is a successful cross-bicyclist, who should grow into the sport without having to enhance his body by any means except for training. During this statement and briefly after, Zabel rested calmly on his chair in tears.

He is rare amongst sports people in admitting to drug usage in the past, while still currently competing. ^[4]

Major achievements

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As of February 2007, Zabel has 192 victories as a professional, more than any other active rider.^[5]

External links

• Unofficial Erik Zabel Website
• The Unofficial Erik Zabel Fansite

References

Sporting positions
Came after: Andrei Tchmil	UCI Road World Cup Champion 2000	Came before: Erik Dekker
Came after: Laurent Jalabert	Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France 1996-2001	Came before: Robbie McEwen

Template:Team Milram

Persondata
NAME	Zabel, Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH	July 7, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin, Germany
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

bar:Erik Zabel

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