Team Garmin-Sharp’s Dave Zabriskie is as much a champion of humour as he is of cycling. The cyclist is known for his wickedly dry wit, and his penchant for singing before stages as well as conducting hilarious interviews with fellow riders for his website. Some know him simply as Captain America.
The affable Zabriskie, 33, is a seven-time U.S. national time trial champion. One of the world’s best time trialists, Zabriskie, or "DZ" to his buddies, is the only American to win stages in all three European Grand Tours in France, Italy and Spain. In 2005, the funnyman from Salt Lake City rose to international prominence when he beat Lance Armstrong by two seconds to win the stage 1 time trial of the Tour de France, spending three days in the yellow jersey. During that race, he also set a record for the fastest individual time trial in Tour de France history.
Zabriskie made his professional debut with the Colorado Cyclist team in 1999. After displaying his talent for time trials by winning the U.S. National Time Trial Championships junior and under-23 age categories and the Grand Prix des Nations under-23 category, Zabriskie moved on to the U.S. Postal team in 2001. In 2004, he won Elite U.S. National Time Trial Championships. He also won stage 11 of the Vuelta a España in an astonishing 162 km solo breakaway, marking his first Grand Tour stage win—especially notable among his victories for not being a time trial. In the 2005 season, Zabriskie switched to Team CSC, where he racked up another Grand Tour stage victory by winning the eighth stage of the 2005 Giro d'Italia. Upon completing the 2006 Tour de France in 74th place, Zabriskie became the second American behind Christian Vande Velde to finish all three Grand Tours.
In 2007, Zabriskie won the U.S. National Time Trial Championship for the third time. The following year, Zabriskie was selected as one of the five riders for the U.S. Olympic road race team and one of the two for the time trial. Riding without his trademark moustache, Zabriskie placed 12th at 1:05:17.82 in the men's time trial at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 3:06 behind race winner Fabian Cancellara. In 2009, he won his first-ever stage race overall at the Tour of Missouri.
2011 was another brilliant year for Zabriskie, winning stage 6 of the individual time trial in the Tour of California, and also being an intrinsic part of Team Garmin-Cervélo’s successes in the 2011 Tour de France.
Alongside his stellar cycling career, Zabriskie has also developed his own line of chamois cream, DZ Nuts, and founded a non-profit organization called Yield to Life. After being hit by cars four times, Zabriskie founded Yield to Life in 2007. The objective of the organization is to create a safer riding environment for cyclists by promoting awareness and education among those who ride, and those who drive. Yield to Life addresses the issue of drivers being not only unaware, but also removed or desensitized from the fragility of a cyclists’ life that is often in their hands.