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| I've only met Dave Zabriskie once: Stage 1 |
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| Columns - Weide's 2005 TdF Commentary | |
| Written by Sean Weide | |
| Saturday, 02 July 2005 | |
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I've only met Dave Zabriskie once. It was at the Interbike show last October in Las Vegas. He was sitting at a booth to sign autographs. There are many sponsors at the world's biggest bike show who have "big names" at their booths. But Zabriskie (before today) was hardly one of them. I actually felt kind of bad for him when I first caught sight of the booth. Not a soul was there to get his autograph. Not even a sponsor representing the product (which I can't recall). Just Zabriskie, staring out into the distance of the show floor with a look on his face like someone had just stolen his bicycle.  Before I approached him, my mind raced as I struggled to recall his career. I remembered that the United States Postal Service team (soon to be Discovery Channel) had decided not to renew his contract. I didn't really want to start off mentioning that. Then I remembered he had recently won a stage at the Tour of Spain with one of the longest solo breakaways in that race's history.
"Dave, I'm Sean Weide," I said, putting out my hand to offer a handshake.
"Nice to meet you," Zabriskie said, barely looking at me. "Do you want me to sign something?" (Big mistake coming up.) "Uh, no," I said. "I just wanted to ask you about that solo break at the Tour of Spain." "Oh," he said, somewhat disappointed. I can't remember the exact question I posed, but it was something along the lines of how hard it was to ride so far by yourself and how satisfying it had to be to win. Trust me, it was not a great question and I can't recall what he said, either. I did know one thing. This was one guy shy and the conversation was going nowhere. I started thinking I should have just asked for an autograph and hit the road. But I'm not an ask-for-an-autograph-type-of-guy, either. "So, do you have any teams looking to pick you up," I said, realizing milliseconds after I got the words out of my mouth that I shouldn't have asked that question, either. "Uh, no, not really," he said. "I'm hoping to cut a deal with someone before the show is over." "Well, good luck to you," I said, quickly making an about-face and heading toward a booth where I heard Phil Liggett would soon be signing autographs. (No, I didn't get Phil's "John Hancock" either, but I did have a nice conversation with him about his work for CBS Sports in the early and mid 80s.) So there you go. Only the third American to ever wear the maillot jaune and I blew a chance to have a meaningful conversation with the guy. Think his autograph booth will have a crowd at Interbike this year? Heck, he probably won't even attend the show now that he'll never have to look for a ride the rest of his career. For you trivia buffs, Zabriskie is the seventh American to win a stage of the Tour de France. The others are: Lance Armstrong (1993, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), Tyler Hamilton (2003), Andy Hampsten (1992), Greg LeMond (1985, 1986 and 1989), Davis Phinney (1986 and 1987) and Jeff Pierce (1987). Have a comment? E-mail Sean Weide
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